The Abandoned Apostle, 2 Tim 4:9-15

2 Tim 4:9-15

The Abandoned Apostle

At the end of most of Paul's epistles, he gives passing instructions, greetings and sometimes warnings. As I said last week looking at Paul's valediction, the words at the end are important. They are all too often passed over. I've done that myself at times. But,, Paul says a lot of significant things in these sections. It is where Paul's tendency to jump from one thing to another is realized. It is Paul's own personality. Even in his apparently undisciplined comments, he is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

There must be something in these words that can teach us important things about the gospel, the use of doctrine, contradiction, correction, and instruction in righteousness--as well as the importance of preaching and its effects for the good or otherwise. That is what makes these short phrases so significant. They are as inspired as the more clearly doctrinal or practical. Sometimes, it takes a little more work to discover the important things being taught.

We do not know all of the people mentioned. Sometimes a person is mentioned only once or a handful of times at the most in the scriptures. However, most of those hardly mentioned were known to others in the early church or stories about them and their identities and ministries have been passed from one group to another until greater details are finally written down. Some of the history of these people was written down in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History. He used a number of tools available to him. So, when Apostolic Tradition is mentioned to tell what men ministered in the early Church, it is based on solid evidence. Not all of the manuscripts are available to all, but scholars have used the ancient documents carefully to give a picture of the ongoing work of God by the Spirit as the Christian message spread throughout the world and to tell us a lot of things that are extra-biblical. Just because something is extra-biblical does not make it doubtful. It has a different degree of authority. But, the historical narratives can be found true and be unto our edification two thousand years after the fact. All of our experiences are extra-biblical. Yet, many of them match the expected experiences that we find in the Bible. Our lives are extra-biblical touching the history, but not necessarily touching our Christian experienced. We must be saved in the same way any Christian believers have been. It must line up with the truth we find in the scriptures. But, our experience of hearing the gospel and receiving the faith or being born again, may be different in some respects, just like not all of our testimonies are exactly the same. Some of us heard the Word for many years before God awakened us; others just a few weeks or months.

So too, the experiences of the ancients found in the Bible are different from each other is some respects, yet the message is always the same. It is that truth that is in the preaching that is God's ordinary means to save sinners. Sanctification, or growth in grace, including how God directs us by his Word and by his providence in our lives differs greatly.

That is what makes these sections of Paul's letters so interesting. Let's read the text, then go back to open it up a bit:    

1. Dilligence and Three Departures

2Tim 4:9 Be diligent to come to me quickly; 10 for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica--Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. 

2. One Remains, Another is needed, a Replacement

11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.  12And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 

3. Important Instructions

13 Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come--and the books, especially the parchments. 

4. A Warning

14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. 15 You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words. 

The text:

9 Be diligent to come to me quickly; 10 for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica--Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. 

11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry.  12And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 

13 Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come--and the books, especially the parchments. 

14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. 15 You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words. 

Let's look at the text:

1. Dilligence and Three Departures

Paul gives a gentle command to his beloved Timothy. Paul needs him as Paul approaches the end of his ministry and the close of his life. Paul needs his son in the faith. Not all of the reasons are made public. There may be many unspoken needs that Paul may make known once Timothy arrives in Rome. Paul writes in this personal letter to his son in the faith:

2Tim 4:9 Be diligent to come to me quickly; 

Two words are important to understand Paul's request. Those words are diligent and quickly. The two go together to instruct Timothy of how important this trip from Ephesus to Rome really is.

To be diligent is the disposition Timothy is to have. He is to make this one of the most important things in his service of Paul as service to God at the point this letter was received. It has the force of telling Timothy to drop other things and make his way quickly to get to Paul as he is imprisoned in Rome. Come to me quickly. Don't linger. Finish what is important and make arrangements to travel. Paul needs Timothy. Looking ahead, we see that Paul has been abandoned.

Three men have left him. One of them left the faith. Paul uses strong language: 10 for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica

We might be tempted to read these words quickly, but given what Demas once represented, these words must have touched Paul's heart as he wrote them. In Colossians 4:14 and in Phil 24, two sections that are likewise at the end of Epistles, Paul includes Demas as one among others who sent greetings to the churches. He had been accepted as a faithful brother having been in the Apostolic band traveling around to preach the gospel and plant new churches. Demas forsook Paul.

Presumably, to forsake Paul is to forsake the work of the gospel and to have left following the faith for something else. This happens quite a few times in the Early Church even in the ministry of the Apostles, including the Apostle Paul. One who was once profitable, forsook the apostolic ministry. If people forsook Paul, who are we to think it won't happen among us in our day? People still act like this.

And they forsake the church and her ministry for the same basic reason--they love the world. There is something in the system of the cosmos that becomes more appealing than following Christ and being a part of the Bride of Christ. They love the world.

Some people who have joined themselves to churches think that they can love Jesus and love the world--a sort of shared allegiance. The Holy Spirit reveals otherwise:

1 John 2:15 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. 

16 For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. 

17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

This is strong language. It rules out a love of the world to any degree. The love of the cosmos is contrary to a love for God. To be a part of the world is to involve yourself with the system that is allied with the devil and his agenda either willingly or unwittingly. The devil dupes many into thinking they can be a little worldly as long as they don't compromise themselves too much. The force of the original in both of those sections is that the world is in opposition to all that God has revealed and that Christ is doing building his own kingdom in this age on the earth. You can't live for Christ and be a part of the world. Eventually you will love the world and come to hate what you once stood for. You will be like Demas, and Simon, and Judas, among others.

If you love the world to any degree, John says the love of the Father is not in you, at all. The world will attract you through your emotions and senses in ways that are not of the Father. Allign yourself with the one true and living God. The world is dying and all who are allied with it will be judged and thrown into the lake of fire. Do the will of God as you have been renewed by him. You will abide forever. You may die, but it will be the means whereby you are brought to heaven to be with Christ forever. Doing God's will is the evidence that you have been brought from the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of his own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are two more who departed. We don't know the reasons why, but there is no reason to think ill of these men.

Crescens for Galatia,

Crescens is an interesting study. He is one of those men we find out about in the extra-biblical literature. Oral traditions have him as one of the seventy Jesus sent out in Luke 10. It is believed that he traveled around as an evangelist. From Luke, we would believe he went out to a place where Jesus was going to go. We don't know who his partner in ministry was at first. But, in some way he became identified with the Apostle Paul. If he was one of the seventy all those years ago, we can understand his continuing in the ministry in the same way for the apostolic ministry as he did in the life of Jesus. Crescens left for Galatia.

He is also an interesting possible connection between the ministries of Jesus and Paul. There is a doctoral dissertation by a man named Brunner in Spokane, WA, who researched and wrote on all of the connections both great and small between Jesus and Paul. He makes this connection in a convincing manner.

Then there is Titus who engaged in ministry like TIMOTHY sent here and there by the Apostles, especially Paul. It should not surprise us that Paul writes of this Evangelists departure--he was ultimately sent one place or another by the Spirit of God. Paul wrote:

Titus for Dalmatia. 

Dalmation was the ancient name for the land to the east of the Adriatic Sea. That is the sea on the eastern side of Italy. Italy looks like a boot coming down out of Europe. On the eastern side, there is a long and this sea. We call that area the Balkans. That is where Titus went. If he went by sea, it was a fairly easy trip. If he went by land, it was a longer journey north Europe proper, then east and finally south. Dalmatia was just north of Macedonia--a place mentioned more in the New Testament.

The epistle from Paul to Titus is a lot like these letters to Timothy. Titus is mentioned in connection with a few of the churches in the NT. He was a Greek who was compelled to be circumcised in order to be accepted by the Jews in various cities.

Even while Paul was in a roman prison, the gospel was going forth through others like Crescens and Titus.

2. One Remains, Another is needed, a Replacement

11 Only Luke is with me.

This is the physician that traveled around with Paul for years. He carefully researched the life of Christ and so wrote the gospel that bears his name and he wrote the book of Acts so a Greek friend of his might know about the spread and effects of the Christian gospel. Luke was a faithful brother. He ministered to Paul in many ways.

Then, we have one of the most remarkable directions given to Timothy. It reminds us that redemption and reconciliation is possible when one repents. We read:

Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. 

This is John Mark over whom Paul and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement in Acts 15. He is known by his surname, Mark to distinguish him from a number of other men named John in the early church. Starting in Acts 15:36 the split is recorded by Luke. Mark had left the Apostolic Band in Pamphilia--which is close to Dalmatia--but now, at the end of his life, Paul needed Mark. His words are, "for he is useful to me for ministry."

Paul offers reconciliation to Mark. Paul realizes that there is a place for Mark and his abilities there at the end of his ministry. There are a number of things Paul may have meant and the commentators go wild with conjecture. It isn't so significant to know what Paul wanted Mark to do as it is that after having had a falling out with a ministry partner of over 20 years, he knew Mark would be profitable. And, he says this after just referring to those who had left him alone, except for Luke. It is a wonderful reminder that God can bring about reconciliations in a variety of ways.

And, to make sure there would be a faithful ministry after Timothy would be diligent to leave the Ephesian Church for Paul, in Rome, we have….

12And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 

A lot of people miss this wonderful connection as Paul continues to provide an apostolic deputy to minister in this needy place. Such love towards the people, to the church and to Christ himself. Paul did not leave the church to themselves, he continued to provide for them.

It may be that Tychicus had already been sent prior to this letter being written and sent. Or, the letter may have been sent by the hand of Tychicus. It would explain to Timothy why Tychicus was arriving in Ephesus. It may have taken three weeks to two months for such a note to get from one place to another. They were almost always sent by the hands of faithful brethren. Titus delivered many letters to churches. It is no violence to see the extra-biblical plausibility of Tychicus delivering a letter by his own hand as the replacement of Timothy in Ephesus.

In Colossians 4:7, Paul wrote, "Tychicus, a faithful brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me.

We know Paul sent Tychicus or Artemis to Titus that Titus would be "diligent to come to the Apostle"--Titus 3:12. Such is the character of the man sent to the difficult place of ministry in Ephesus. A noble replacement. A faithful man to be in the place of another faithful man.

Then we have some….

3. Important Instructions

13 Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come--

This shows us Paul's real humanity. He wanted the cloak, a piece of clothing to keep dry and warm. He knows where he left it--and with whom he placed its trust. To Carpus at Troas.

And what endears Paul to most preachers….

and the books, especially the parchments. 

At the end of Paul's ministry when the time of his departure is so close he can almost touch it, he wants Timothy to be diligent to come quickly, but not so quickly that Timothy would leave Paul's literature behind.

Paul wanted the materials that he had often studied. He wanted the books. This may have been the copies of the Old Testament he had in scrolls. The manuscripts may have been other scriptures from the OT and maybe even early copies of some of the gospels and perhaps his own writings either sent or that he was preparing to send. Either way, at the end of his life, the literature he owned was important for him. It is never too late to appreciate godly materials that instruct and edify. Paul was not to old to study. The books and manuscripts where important to him as he nears death. What a wonderful example Paul is to all, especially to ministers with libraries large of small.

Then a needed word to remind Timothy of a dangerous man. Paul gives….

4. A Warning

14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. 15 You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words. 

This is the man excommunicated by the Apostle. It appears that Alexander was once a part of the church. In 1 Tim 1:20, Paul writes: …of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. Verse 19 is about some who had shipwrecked their souls. These two men are mentioned explicitly as those who did this. For this metaphor to mean anything, Alexander had to have been a part of the church that he forsook and left the faith--thus the picture of shipwreck. Why? Because of blasphemy. He spoke against or in an insulting manner about God: either the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit, or all of them together.

This seems like a small offense in our day when so many misuse the name of God and live in ways that speak against what he promised to do in those he calls to be his own. Blasphemy is not a small sin. It is a wicked sin. James 2:7 instructs believers to not blaspheme that noble name by which you were called.

This is what many in the crowd did to Jesus as they passed by him, Matt 27:39 tells us they did this as they were wagging their heads. It is a picture of utter disdain. These are some of those profane and idle babblings that Timothy was to avoid (2 Tim 2:16) because they lead to more ungodliness. The willingness to speak against God or insulting of him even to the point of using his name in vain to any degree, shows what is truly in the heart. Even exclaiming, "OMG." Is using God's name in vain in a blasphemous way--it is often said when something surprises another. It shows a heart that does not understand God's right to do what he wants to do on the earth. It shows an unwillingness to submit to the sovereignty of God in all things. It leads to more ungodliness.

Be careful, your children will pick up on what you say and repeat it. The most probable source is the parents or others they are with a lot of the time. I have heard those letters coming out of too many mouths that profess to praise Christ with the same lips and tongue. It should not be. It is simply blasphemy, but insulting to God nonetheless.

But, God is gracious and can bring us face to face with the truth of our sins and our need to be changed by the grace and power of God. That is what the Lord does when he saves people. It is his work that transforms us that brings us assurance of our salvation. That is, when we see that the change or transformation is a work of God and not of our flesh. Praise God when you realize his work within you. Cry out for more grace.

If you are like Alex or Demas, cry out for a different kind of grace--the kind that saves from sin and certain wrath to come and changes us to say No to ungodliness and worldly lusts that we might live upright, soberly and godly in this present age.

Only God can change sinners to be good. And, bless Him, he continues to save and sanctify. Ask Him to soften your heart, to open the eyes of understanding and to give you the new birth, that you would be truly his son or daughter. Learn to love the one who first loved the likes of us. AMEN!!