2 Tim 4:16-18
God's Faithfulness
Another example of
Paul's unorthodox style of writing is found in the paragraph before us. There
was something about Alexander the coppersmith and the harm he did to Paul and
the message of the Christian gospel that provoked these thought in his
memory--and the Spirit inspired them and included them in this personal letter.
Timothy was in Ephesus
where Alexander lived and worked. Perhaps this is a warning and a comfort to
Timothy. A warning to watch out for this evil man, a man previously given over
to Satan for the destruction of his flesh on order that he might see the
severity of his deeds and come to repentance before the Lord Jesus. It would
have also been a comfort to Timothy and to every faithful minister in this age
about the faithfulness of God as he cares for his servants.
Let's read the text:
1. First Defense
2 Tim 4:16 At my first defense, no one came to my
support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.
2. The Lord's Presence
17 But the Lord stood at my side and gave
me strength,
3. The Lord's Purpose
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.
4. The Lord's Practice
18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil
attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.
5. The Perpetual Glory of the Lord
To him be glory for
ever and ever. Amen
Let's look more
closely at the text:
1. First Defense
2 Tim 4:16 At my first defense, no one came to my support,
but everyone deserted me.
This is one
of the previous trials before the Romans. The earlier theme of desertion comes
back into Paul's thinking. It was being addressed, he went on to something else
and then came back to the topic, though almost in passing. The desertion of his
former friends and ministers had a big effect on Paul. It is always nice to see
the effects of your ministry on other people positively as they continue to
come to hear the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the Word. But, One
or two harsh comments or a family or two who leave can have ill effects on the
minister. I can vouch for that from experience. It happened to Paul on not a
single occasion, but others beyond this.
Earlier in this
chapter we had the word forsaken. It is a serious thing when someone repudiates
a ministry. If it is because of the minister preaching the truth that struck a
chord in the mind or heart of the one offended, well, the best thing to do is
repent before God. But, like happened often in the history of the world, it is
easier to attack the messenger. Don't forsake the church and the ministry the
ascended Christ has given to her as a gift from himself. He knows what churches
need.
But, if someone leaves
because of their sin, likewise, they should seek for God's mercy and as much
spiritual strength they have, they should go to God and confess their sin and
forsake it, rather than God's people.
It is in times of
difficulty that people are more likely to leave a church without good reason.
Just look at this paragraph in its context of those who had forsaken and now
Paul writing about his first defense and how nobody came to his support--they
left him to himself. And, that all had desserted him. They left him to fend for
himself.
It amazes me that
people who had been converted under his ministry and had traveled with him to
spread the gospel, came to the point that they desserted the Apostle. But, all
I have to do is thing a little and ask if this had happened before. And, as
many of you have already had run through your minds, this is what Jesus told
his disciples. They abandoned him on the night he was arrested. Earlier that
night Jesus had told them the disciples would be treated like he was. Paul was
not among them. But, he became an Apostle as one born out of time. The message
was forsaken by many: unbelievers, apostates and false brethren, his own
friends and fellow-laborers. It is a pathetic bit of the history of the
earliest church.
Paul prays a short
prayer for these men. He simply says,
May it not be held
against them.
Paul prayed like
Stephen in Acts 7:60. Paul prayed for those who had been a part of Christ's
ministry and calling. He was not vengeful. He did not hold some kind of grudge
praying the imprecatory Psalms for God to smite these men. Instead he prayed
this simple prayed that God would not impute this sin to them and punish them
in this life or in the judgment for what they have done. Paul knew their true
character and that sometimes in rough times people do sinful things. After all
he had just written about John Mark. Paul desires something different for these
men. The sins of these men were in a different class than Alexander's. Not all
sins are alike and not all sins are of the same degree. Alexander sinned out of
spite and made blasphemous attempts to injure the gospel of Christ. These
others through, as John Gill writes, surprise, temptation and weakness.
We must watch our own
souls for these same sorts of weaknesses and the temptations that we cannot
endure without the help of the Holy Spirit and the brothers and sisters in
Christ who have pledged themselves to work for our good. The world puts pressure on us quite often to
lose our identity in Christ for the sake of fitting in. We fail to live by
God's standards and temporarily accept the lesser standards of others. Often
this comes on us quickly and it is easier to conform to worldly expectations
than to hold our ground for Christ's testimony in the world. I've worked in
secular jobs. I know this first hand. But many years later, co-workers will
still respect you if you stood for biblical truths in the past. Hardly anyone
stands for anything in our day. I had a friend who told me he liked me and the
way I handled people. But, he couldn't figure out the religious part of me. I
told him it was that religious part that drove all of the parts of me that he
liked. It opened up a wonderful opportunity to explain the gospel and its
effects to four men at a leisurely lunch. The effects of that converstation
were many for the good, even though nobody came to faith. The influence of the
gospel in the world and worldlings makes for a better and more civil society.
That is a good thing. But, those sorts of people who use the things of
Christianity for their own ends are also some of the quickest to be critical
about anything overtly religious, too. They often judge Christianity by
professed-believers who did very unscrupulous things and who did not live in
accordance with the expectations of others. I have found that people like that
generally have realistic expectations of those who claim to be Christians.
Even though all
deserted Paul, he held steadfast because he knew of the promise of God found in
many places in the OT, especially the Psalms, but also in the life of Jesus. It
is the promise of….
2. The Lord's Presence
17 But the Lord stood at my side and gave
me strength,
What a wonderful image of the presence of God! What kind of people stand by your side in
times of trouble? An advocate is one. One who comes to comfort and to help
plead your case. A bodyguard help to protect. A brother who gives aid by his
strength and that is one of the roles Jesus takes up for his people.
Jesus is all that and more. Jesus told Paul to expect suffering
in his work of the ministry. Acts 9:15-16 15 But the Lord said to
him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before
Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. 16 For I will
show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake.
And elsewhere, earlier in his ministry, Paul also believed this,
Phil 1:12--12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which
happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel….
How could this be? The
Lord was with Him and Paul knew the many promises of protection given to the
Lord's people. What God has promised he is able also to perform as it says
about Abraham in Rom 4:20. Will not this God keep his promises to all who look
to him by Faith? Will not this same God come to our side and give us help? He
surely will.
Have you ever
experienced this sort of thing from the hand of God? He might make us wait a
while, but he shows himself strong either to provide or guide. The church
finances are an example of this. We don't know what the end of all of this will
be. But Christ promised to build his church. As long as one or more of you need
the ministry and people of this church for one godly reason or another, the
Lord will sustain us. But, if sin continues to reign in the attitudes of some,
the Lord might withdraw his light from the candlestick. That is up to hm. Until
that time we are called to faithfulness clinging to the promises of God. When
it comes to protection--we have been kept from the harsh effects of many sins.
Some know about some of them. The Lord worked to protect us from ourselves in
many ways. Why? To preserve us for his heavenly kingdom. When he is finished
using us to save and sanctify souls to the point where they ought to be under
this ministry, then the end will come. Not before nor after. For now, let it
suffice that the Lord is with us and his Holy Spirit is our helper. And the
Father holds us in his strong hand.
Paul moves on to…
3. The Lord's Purpose
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.
Paul knew that
suffering was a means whereby the Gospel might spread. Paul knew with apostolic
insight that the Christian message still needed to be proclaimed among the
Gentiles. Either he, or someone he would commission or appoint would go on to
finish this task that was unfinished in his lifetime. It is still unfinished as
all the Gentiles include generations born after Paul's life and before the
final return of Jesus. Since Jesus has not returned, the message must keep
going forth. It must continue to be preached because it is the main means used
by God to accomplish the salvation of those who are to believe in Jesus Christ.
As we saw in Paul's earlier words, preaching is the primary work of the
ministry. It is joined with praying as the items that are most important in the
gospel ministry.
Paul desired that all
the Gentiles would hear. Out of all who hear, some will believe and be called
into fellowship with one another as Gospel Churches. That is what we find in
the last 2,000 or so years. Paul's concern has been taken up by many men in a
variety of places all across the world. And, God has called sinners out of
darkness in all of those out of the way places and in the ordinary centers of
non-Jewish populations. Christ is still building his church--the gates of Hell
will not prevail against it. There is something in that promise for us to
consider. It is not the size of a church that matters, it is the presence of
God the Father in worship, God the Son in our midst and the blessed Holy Spirit
indwelling and working in us individually and corporately for our good and
God's glory.
The salvation of one
sinner is reason to believe God is with us. The growth in grace of others is an
example as well. The solemn worship of God from the heart is another. In all of
these things, the Lord is with us. He is delivering us to what we shall be. We
don't know what that is so for now, we try to be faithful to the Lord,
expecting his faithfulness to us and with us. Great is His Faithfulness.
Paul adds his future
expectation of his dear Lord:
4. The Lord's Practice
18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil
attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.
An evil attack may be
the means God will use to bring his people to the heavenly kingdom.
After 9/11, it was the
next day at our Wednesday night prayer meeting, Harry put Ron and me on the
spot to explain the events of the preceding day. He asked us to stand in front
of the church, we did not know this was coming and hadn't prepared in advance
any words to say. When it was my turn I tried to explain that God had glorified
himself, yet, again. He used the acts of sinful men to send unbelievers to
their eternal torment, he used it to send some who were believers to their home
in the heavenly kingdom and as a warning to those who remain.
For a month or two,
people were open to the Gospel because of fear of death alone. That isn't
always a good thing. It should be a fear of death accompanied by the fear of
God that wants the deliverance that only God can give. Some came to believe
when the Gospel message was understood. Others became religious without true
faith in the Lord Jesus and others eventually went on living on the road to
hell.
God delivered many
through the wickedness on that day and throughout this age has been pleased to
save many as he also prepares them for the heavenly kingdom. Salvation and
sanctification, growth in grace, are the two components of the Apostolic
message to be preached in Churches today.
The same means is
around today to be proclaimed authoritatively that the Spirit might give live
to dead sinners and a more abundant Christian life to those who have faith.
5. The Perpetual Glory of the Lord
To him be glory for
ever and ever. Amen
As I mentioned in the
story about the explanation of 9/11, God glorifies himself all the time. It is
God that we seek to make known, that we boast about, the we use as the bright
light to dispose the darkness in the world and to show others the weightiness and
purpose for which all things were created--to bring God glory.
It is not always easy,
but it should be our goal, whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, nothing
excluded, should be done to the glory of God. Everything! Nothing is excluded.
It covers how we work, how we pray, how we treat others--sometimes even our
enemies and people who desert us.
May God bring glory to
himself in us and through us that others might see the Lord Jesus Christ and
how important he is to us and come to ask why we have hope in Him. And, may it
be used to bring some to believe of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many say they will die
for Jesus. First, he wants you to live for him. He'll take care of the rest.
AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment