Pastoral Epistles - Lesson 19

Pastoral Epistles

Dr. Bill Mounce

nt630-19

2 Timothy 4:3–22

Lesson Transcript

I didn't realize how close we were to actually finishing. I may not have had a break, but let's get through the rest of the second Timothy. And just there's a couple of things that are really important to point out. Yeah. And this is the race passage. Took me a second to figure out what you were doing over there. First. Second. Timothy 413. The reason that Paul is encouraging Timothy to preach the word to be ready in season and out is because first three, the time's coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into the myths. In other words, the time is coming. This is just a generic last day kind of prophetic statement that there comes a point in time where people don't want to hear the truth. I have no intention of hearing the truth. They simply want to hear whatever they want to hear. And Paul says, Those days are coming. And I would say that they have come. Yep. And, uh, v So you need to preach. Why? You can. As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist. I think that's the one time Timothy is called an evangelist. Really? Talk about the gifts that were prophesied over and one of them was evangelism. Fulfill your ministry. In other words, complete your task. The reason it's so important that Timothy complete his task is that Paul's ministry is done. This is where we see very clearly the difference between the first and the second Roman imprisonment and the first Roman imprisonment. Paul is very clear that he expects to be exonerated.

He expects to be released this time. He knows it's done. It is done. I'm not I'm not going to get out this time, he says. I am already being poured out as a drink. Offering. Drink offering was the sacrificial right. They did it in different circumstances, such as the Olympic Games and basically saying My life is a living. Sacrifice has been poured on. It's the libation poured out on the altar of God. I'm I'm all poured out. The time of my departure has come. The word translated departure is actually the word loosening. It's it's a euphemism for dying. But I thought about this. I go, What a wonderful euphemism for dying. We're just being loosened or just being loosened from this life and moving into that which is true life. And it's really it's it's a great metaphor, isn't it? For loosening. Uh, about a. Two years ago, I think it was. We were in translation committee and Gordon Feed told us that he had just been diagnosed as having Alzheimer's. And we were I mean, we were all really sad because we were it's all we all love him to pieces. But it was he's such a valuable member of the committee and we didn't want to lose him for the committee, but got out of their plans. And I talked to him afterwards about it and I said, How are you doing? I mean, here's the man that brought academic respectability to Pentecostalism all by himself. I mean, his book on On the Spirit is just a phenomenal book. And I said, you know, certainly, God, you deserve to be around longer. But that was not what Gordon said. He said, You know, Sybil. It's been a good run. That was it. That was the evaluation of his life.

It's been a good run. And I thought about that in conjunction with this passage. Man, I hope when I'm diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer's or whatever cancer or whatever it is, what's going to get me in the end? Um, I hope I can look back at my life and say that was a good run and it's time the race is over and it's time just to be loose and from this life and to go to life that is real life. I mean, I hope I have that in me. Um, but that's how Paul thought about it. He goes to the time departures comes is going to get loosened from this world. I just think the imagery is is really, really powerful. And then he says, I fought the good fight. Famous first. I have fought the good fight. And it's not that he did a good job fighting. He's saying that the fight was inherently good, right? The fight of the gospel is a good fight. It's worth fighting for as I have fought the good fight. You know, I finished the race. I I've done all that I was called to do. And I have kept the faith. I have been absolutely trustworthy. I have not I have not stopped I have not altered the gospel. I have been true to it. And then he says, henceforth, here's all that's left for me. Henceforth there laid up for me the crown of righteousness. Now, what did Paul just skip? This thing is kind of interesting. Skip dying. He's saying all that's left is the crown. That's kind of cool. Life is loosening. Death isn't really an event. The only thing that's left for Paul is I get my crown. And again, as I mentioned before, I'm not a I'm not a rewards guy.

If God wants to give me rewards, that's fine. I have no idea what they would be. I can't imagine anything better than well-done, good and faithful servant. I just I mean, I talk to people about rewards. I go, What do you want? A bigger house, The millennium. You want to rule over more cities like the parable talking about it as my definition of health. Administrative responsibilities over a large number of people. You know, I just look at him and I just said that there are anyway, I think our I think our reward is our salvation. I think it is our crown. It is our good job, Bill. Well done, good and faithful servant. Anyway, I could be wrong in that. I don't think so. But we're going to get our crown of righteousness, which we get to drop right away. Right. Actually, no. I was thinking of Murli Mat and we went to India and they gave us. What would you call them? The flower things. I forget the name, but it's just a standard Indian way of greeting. And when they they put it on Murli, he took off right away. Murli was our Indian partner in a friend in India, and they put him on me. I didn't know any better. I left it on and I preached my lesson. I thought it'd be rude to take these flowers. I've taken like a laze. What to look like. Well, found out later. It's you need to take them off. And because otherwise you're separating yourself out. Is that a fair way to say it? Something like that. And. But at least we know when we get our crowns, the whole point will be to take them off and give them back because that they belong at the feet of Jesus later.

For me, the crown of righteousness that the Lord will award to me on that day, the righteous judge. And not only to meet Timothy, he says, but to everyone who is loved appearing. So again, he is encouraging Timothy the just as this is what I have a head for me. So also you who love the Lord, who look forward to his return. We to you too, are looking forward to your crown of righteousness. That you get to give right back to them by addition. It is some interesting discussion of what is the crown of righteousness. And for some people it is the crown which is righteousness. And we are declared righteous at our conversion. But when all sin is removed, in a sense we will, I don't want to say will be more righteous word right now because of what Christ has done. We're fully righteous. But the ideal, the crown, is the fact that we are righteous in heaven. Something along those lines. There's a singer named Steve Camp that has got some amazing lyrics, and he's got a song that says, I know someday I will be free and the weight of sins shall be released. But until then, he covers me. And, you know, someday this battle with sin is going to be over, isn't it, y'all? I mean, someday, uh, every. Fiber of our being. Every cell of our body will have skin pulled out of the very DNA of every cell. You know, there are certain events that are non repeatable in all eternity. And I and I try to visualize those and think about them the first time, opening our eyes in eternity and what it's going to be like. Um, but I think the first time we see the Lord, the first time we see all of our sin for what it is giving account for every careless word we've ever said, and it's finally getting it through my thick skull.

What a sinner I really am and how great his love and mercy is to save someone like me. Because I wouldn't know the depth of his love until I know the depth of my sin. And I won't know the depth of my sin. And I can see it all in one place. And that's not going to happen until judgment day. So there are these different events that I'm really looking forward to. So that just because no matter for how many trillions of millennia I live, I'll never experience those things again. But certainly the the day and I don't know when it's going to happen. I can't figure out the eschatology of it, but the day in which sin is removed from every pore of our body, every cell in our body, sin is going to be removed and we're going to be clean in a way that we've never been clean before. I look forward to that. I look forward to that. And I think that's when when righteousness takes its full effect and and sin is gone. What a wonderful day that's going to be. The crown of righteousness will be rewarded to everyone who loves his appearing. Well, then he does. But Paul then does is he really just gets down to business and has a bunch of practical matters. He says, Please come to come and see me soon. Verse nine Demus in love with the world's deserted me. He's taken off too first. So like, we don't know, assuming because it's in love with the present world. The dream is not only left, Paul, but he left the faith. It looks like he apostasy is. Cresent has gone to Glacier Glacier. Um. Oh, I don't have a word here. Who went to Dalmatia? So Titus went to Dalmatia.

Thinks I'd better fix it. Luke alone is with me. Hmm. I wonder why Luke is there. Maybe he's writing Second Timothy Denmark and bring him with me, for he's very useful for me in ministry. So neat picture reconciliation, isn't it? This is the John Mark that abandoned him and split Paul and Barnabas second missionary journey. Evidently there was some reconciliation and Mark was part of Jump Paul's ministry again and enticing, as I've said to emphasize. In other words, this is one of your replacements. And when you come bearing the cloak I left with carpets of Tropez, bring the books, but really bring those parchments. Uh, we have no idea what the parchments were, but Paul really wanted to see them. It's interesting. He asked for the cloak again. He's probably down the hall. And he's probably very cold. And so he just thinking very practically. Charles Swindell is a very famous sermon on this verse, but practical. Bring the cloak, bring the books, bring the parchments. These is watch out for Alexander Again, we don't know, but this probably is the Alexander that gets excommunicated in chapter one. Alexander the Coppersmith, the great Harm and the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Um. Revenge is not a bad thing. It's a God thing, right? Vengeance is a God thing. And, um, Paul is willing to turn over vengeance about Alexander to God. It's one of the kind of interesting ways to reconstruct the facts is you wonder if Alexander is this efficient elder that was helping to cause the problems. Paul excommunicated him. And so in revenge, Alexander got Paul rearrested. That's that's one way to to look at the details of it, which probably means Alexandra wasn't Paul's best friend. But he said Alexander did a lot of harm to me, the Lord.

But the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Vengeance is a God thing. But he says, Beware of them. Be careful. Watch out for innocents, doves and the shrewdest snakes is hard, isn't it? And he's saying, be really careful of Alexander. He strongly opposed our message, so be careful of them. Then in verse 16, we have this reference to this first stage of the Roman trial where Paul would come and the charges would be read and it would be an initial defense, and usually someone would have stood by him and vouched for his character and that kind of stuff. Paul says, In my first defense, no one came to stand by me that everybody deserted me. And we've already looked at some of the desertions in Second Timothy one because may not be charged against them. Please forgive them, Lord. Um, you know that basically I'm going to do what Jesus did on the cross. Then he says, But I wasn't really alone. He said, The Lord stood by me and strengthened me. And because it was the Lord who was standing by me and strengthening me at my trial. The message was fully proclaimed All the Gentiles here might hear it. See that the Gospel has now officially spread, hasn't it? From Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, even to the Imperial Court in Rome, we now got the spread of the Gospel, complete through all the ancient world. All the Gentiles can hear it, he says. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth, and the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. You go, Wait a minute, Paul. You know you're going to die. And he goes, That's not the point.

So I've been rescued in the sense that God has kept me faithful to the very end. And and I'm going home to my reward. I'm going home to my to God's glory. God's rescued me. He's bringing me home at this point. That's my rescue. I was rescued. We don't know whether whether he actually was put in the arena with lions and he was saved from it or whether the lions is metaphorical for the Alexander and the other charges that were brought against him. But whatever they were, he says, I wasn't alone and God didn't fail me. He stood by me and he rescued me and he's going to bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom, to him, be glory forever and ever. And then he concludes. Say hi to Priscilla and Akilah. Say Hey, little Southerner. Right. Okay. Say, Hey, do you all say that, North Carolina? Do you say say hey, instead of say say hello? It's like, okay. All right, all right. Yeah, I, I say, Hey, Goober, I don't think I would say that, but one of my few Southern expressions I picked up at Kentucky, it said, Say hey to the household of honest difference. Why not? Honest difference is probably dead. He's probably gone home. So say hey to the household of on a surface Arastoo stated cause troll for Miss got sick. I had to leave in my lettuce. In other words, this is what happened. Probably after Paul got arrested and was being taken back to Rome. Do your best to come before winter. In other words, Paul didn't know when his execution was going to happen, and he really wanted to see Timothy because once winter hits, travel stops on the Mediterranean and he wants to see Timothy for sure before he dies, do your best to come before winter.

You business. I'm not sure how to say it. It's a I'm assuming it's a Latin name sends greetings to you, as do Prudence and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers. In other words, this. These are the brothers of the Roman church. And then it concludes, the Lord, be with your spirit, Grace. Be with you all. Unfortunately, we don't know if Timothy made it. Uh, there's. There's just nothing in church history. Uh, but I hope that, uh, God made sure that Timothy was able to get there before he died. Um, it's in the commentary, but according to church tradition, Paul was taken out to was there on the Appian Way and was beheaded in A.D. 67 and the end of his life. Well, that's the rose then. And and know we spread quickly through Titus and second Timothy. But, um. Karl. I do so much in four days. So thank you guys for the opportunity. It's been a pleasure. And I suspect I'll be seeing some of you again. Thanks.