Let's pray. Father, You are a good, good Father. Gracious and merciful and long-suffering. You bless us with blessings innumerable. But the greatest blessing of all was sending Your Son, Jesus Christ. And for that, we give thanks and praise. And He sent forth, along with Yourself, the Holy Spirit. that dwells within us, of whom we are needy at this point in time. As we open up the scriptures, let our hearts burn within us. That your word may be planted in us, take root, grow and bear fruit for your glory and your kingdom in Christ Jesus' name. Amen. We are In the last of our messages on 2 Timothy, it's a bit sad, but we will be moving on. I'll have a one-off message next week and then we will start Timothy. This, Titus, yes, sorry. Groundhog Day. What kind of person are you? Are you An analyst, very organized, focused trade of thought. Are you a creative, kind of random, kind of bouncing all over the place? I'm the latter. If you read the passages before us today, you go, what is he on? I mean, think about this. Let me put it in this perspective. Let's say you're getting ready to go on a trip to Europe. You're going to be gone for a long period of time. You got yourself and your wife and kids and you've got a bunch of luggage and you're going to be gone for a while. And the wife starts to go, okay, do you have your passport? Yes. Did you water the plants? Yes. Did you get snacks for the trip? Yes. Did you get your CPAP equipment that I have? Yes. All the hoses and everything else? Yes. Okay, do you have your ID? Yes. It almost seems like sporadic, these commands barking out one after another. Paul, when you read this text, he starts out, come quickly. Demas left town. Oh, and then Tychus is over here. And bring my books and my coat. And no one was with me at my trial. Did I tell you about my trial? And you're going, where is he coming from? And you have to take just a little bit of time to see what Paul is trying to say in this passage. He's wanting to tell us three things, but then he lays over it some color, if you will. He wants to say that God is with us in ministry. Verses nine through 13. He wants to say God is with us in conflict. Verses 14 through 18. And he wants to say God is with us even in final farewells. But then overlaying that are some deep personal themes about fellowship, about community, about ministry life. These personal emotions come from Paul and come to the fore. And that's where these commandments are coming along with the needs of ministry to come quickly, to bring Mark and my coat and my books and beware of that Alexander and come before winter. And so there's several things going on, several moving parts. It's as if Paul sat down with Luke and started writing this letter and he put forth chapter one and that one's easy to follow. That is, Timothy is to be entrusted with the gospel. He's to guard it. And then chapter two has the same type of systematic approach to it. It all boils down to remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, son of David, the gospel message itself. Then you get to chapter three, and again, it makes logical sense. You're entrusted with the gospel, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, offspring of David, and then chapter three, stand firm in a world that isn't gonna listen anymore. They're in love with all the things that this world has to offer. We get to chapter four and it starts out systematically, preach the word, Timothy. And then it's almost like Luke says, I don't have much paper left. Paul goes, got it. And he barks out these things like staccato, one after another. The thing is, is he knows Timothy. He calls Timothy in chapter one, my beloved child. He told the Philippian church, I have no one else like him. Welcome him when he comes to you. Paul had spent so many years with Timothy that even in this random nature that he starts to take up, that Timothy will go, that's Paul. That's the Paul I know. That's the Paul that was called by God to preach the gospel. That's the Paul I love. And so we begin to look at this text and the ministry movements that are going on. Let me touch upon that first. Paul is in that Mamertine prison that I've talked about, that cave, the little hole in the wall and it's cold and it's damp. Derek Thomas, in something that I read this week, believes that even though you can go there if you're in Rome, and you walk down some steps to get there underground, and it's actually under a street that's currently there, Derek Thomas believes that there wasn't that type of entry before. It was like a cistern in the Old Testament that was a carving out within the ground that only had a holt and the water was captured and rested there. But in this case, they would have lowered Paul down into this prison, dark and damp. A visitor would have to be imprisoned as well in order to go down and be with Paul. Onessi Forrest did that. That was in chapter one. He sought him out. He was hard to find because he was underground. But what we see in here is something interesting. Paul sees death on the horizon. He said, I have fought the good fight. I have run the race. I have kept the faith, Timothy. I know my departure is on the horizon. and yet he's still doing ministry. It's amazing. Death has a perspective, or brings a perspective, doesn't it? If you know you're going to die, you might live a little differently. you might make the majors the priority and the minors you might let them go. Paul called to do gospel ministry, wanted to do it until literally his last dying breath. And so as he's talking to Timothy, even though he starts out, do your best, which is an imperative, it's a command. Do your best to come to me soon, quickly. I need you." The emotion of their relationship to one another. Paul was considered his father in the faith. And then Paul goes on to talk about some ministry movements. Timothy, here's what's going on. He's almost like a field general, Paul is. And so he talks about Demas, Demas that is referred to in Colossians and also in Philemon as a fellow laborer in the faith. This was one of Paul's right-hand men. He says he's left. He's departed. He's moved on. He's gone to Thessalonica. And he doesn't dwell on it that much. But one has to wonder, was it the persecution that was happening in Rome at that time? It's approximately 64 AD, Nero is on the throne. He has set Rome on fire. That's what many commentators say. And then blame the Christians. And then through that came persecution. Donning them in skins of animals and dabbing them with blood and then throwing them to wild dogs or lions. Or using them as human candles for his garden parties. Perhaps Demas said, you know what Paul, I love you but I gotta go. Maybe he didn't have the strength or the perseverance Some people say he was weak in his faith. Others go so far to say that he apostasized, that he left, that he cared more about himself, which you see in chapter three, for the love of self, the love of money, the love of passions, than he did for Paul or for Christ. So he lets Timothy know, here's one movement that happened, we lost one of our own. But then he goes on and says, Christians has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. And he says, Tyicus I have sent to Ephesus, where you are. As if to say, Timothy, he's gonna take your place so that you can come to me. But all these churches that I planted, the work and the ministry where the gospel is growing in churches, that's got to continue, Timothy. So that's why I've sent these people out. They're gone. But lo and behold, I turn around and only Luke's with me. There's a priority and a focus to Paul even facing death, that the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ His incarnation, His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God takes priority for Paul even in the face of death. Is that true of you? Like I said, death brings perspective. You might live a little bit differently if you know what's coming. A gentleman I knew for years passed away this week. Same age as myself. When I was at Prestonwood years ago, they asked me to teach a Sunday school class. And he became the class director. That's how I got to know him. He was humble. He was witty. He was devoted to Christ. He had a little phrase that he used to say all the time. Thank you. Thank you for being my friend. He was an encourager. He always cared about others more than he did himself. Four years ago, he had melanoma and it had spread. His perspective in the face of death really didn't change, because he already knew who he was in Christ Jesus. But he did make it a point to get back with people who he knew. had lost touch with. We had gone to a movie, Gayla and myself. We got our tickets and we went up and we sat down. I can't even remember what the movie was. And then this couple comes in and sits right in front of us. It's Gary and his wife. And so we went to dinner afterwards. And we saw them probably, I don't know, four or five times over the next four years. But he made it a point to get back together with people. Because, as I said, this first point, God is with us in ministry. And that's true. But God also made us as people to be a part of his body, to reflect himself to you and I, through you and I. Does that make sense? Gary was getting back with people he had lost touch with to give words of encouragement, to speak about Christ, to see what was going on in their life. That's what Paul desired from Timothy. Come quickly. I need to see you one more time. We need to talk about ministry more than I can do in this letter. And so Gary would do that, and he got with all kinds of people and said, thank you for being my friend. There's an aspect to the church where we reflect Christ by being Christ to others through words of encouragement, through praying for others, for checking in with them. I'm talking to myself here. We need to do a better job of loving one another, of doing ministry to one another. so that people will see Christ in you, the hope of glory. So these ministry movements, ministry was important, but as I said, Paul's laying this color over it to say, hey, there's relationships here to be had, to be cultivated, to be fostered. It is easy to be isolated. It is easy to be alone. Have you ever been separated from someone? for a pretty significant period of time. You long to be with that person. My wife and I, after we got buried, we moved to Southern California. We lived in Irvine, California. She worked at an ad agency, and I worked for a hardware distributor out there, and then my account was Target, and Target hired me away from them. And we had been out there about three and a half years, and we decided, hey, you know what, we're going back to Texas. We can't buy a house here, not a great place to raise kids, you know, just a lot of reasons, her father's health and et cetera. So we made a decision to go back. Gail goes, I'm gonna send out some applications. She did, and man, somebody snapped her up just like that. So early in 1988, out just after the first of the year, as I remember. She might correct me. She moves back to Texas, and I'm in Southern California. I put in and petitioned to get transferred with Target. And I was told, yeah, we'll carry that out. We'll get you on somewhere back there. One month goes by. Two months goes by. Three months goes by. And I go, I can't take this. You know, there's not cell phones back then and FaceTime and everything else. Call her on the phone, talk to her every day, but it's not the same of being face-to-face. Our relationships in the body of Christ is an in-person, meant to be an in-person relationship. That's what Paul's trying to show us here. Even in all of life, in ministry, or in conflict, or in a final farewell, face-to-face interaction is what sets us apart. The church being the body of Christ. Meeting our needs spiritually, physically, emotionally, All of those things, Paul is saying, I'm doing ministry. We're still operating ministry, but we've got to have a relationship, Timothy. I need you to come, and I need you to come quickly. Now, Paul also knows that his time is short. He wouldn't ask Timothy to do something if he couldn't be there on time. It was about 900 miles from where Ephesus to Rome, and so probably four months of travel So Paul figures the judicial process that he's going through, he's got at least that much time. But you've got to come quickly because I don't think I have much more than that. does, according to commentators, begin to make his way toward Rome. So God is with us in ministry. He enables us to think clearly in the things that have to be done and prioritize those things. But then he also wants us to keep and cultivate our ministry with partners, fellow members of the church. And God is with us through and through. Now, I learned from a wise man a long time ago, or heard this saying a long time ago. When it's all said and done, you can count your best friends, your closest friends on one hand. I remember being young and going, I'm gonna have lots of friends. But if you're older like I am, you know that's true. You know, the number of people that you have become completely transparent with, being able to put forth your greatest sorrows, your greatest joys, your greatest trials, all those types of things. There's not that many that you share those kind of things with. I don't know your sphere of influence, who you pass to and from with, but you need to have those people you can count on at three in the morning. The no questions asked attitude. Those that you would say, I need you. Their response is, I'm on my way. You need that Christian. You won't have many of those. You won't. The reality is you can't be that to everyone in this congregation. But you can get to know everyone in this congregation and pray for them and come alongside, but you've got to have those people that can help you walk this walk to follow Jesus. Every once in a while, Colton will pop in my office. Now, I don't know him that well at this point, and I don't speak of this out of arrogance or pride or anything else. Being in ministry, and you can ask Pastor Jake this as well, being in ministry, being a senior pastor is different. And you don't know what it's like. Someone told me long ago, until you're a senior pastor, you have no idea what it's like, and that's true. And so there's things that I have a pastoral care team, a couple of elders that I'll meet with once a month and we can talk about different things. But I also have some men that are in the presbytery and others that I can talk to about different things and get encouragement, have prayer with, and those types of things. You need that type of person. But let me just give you an illustration of what this looks like. As I said, Colton might pop into my office from time to time. He'll either say, I got a question, or you got a minute? I have a little hourglass, if you've seen my office. My wife got it for me, okay? If I turn it on you, you have five minutes and 24 seconds. But it'd be gracious. But Colton will come in, he'll have a question or say, do you have a minute? And he'll ask a question. It's not a yes, no question. I might not even have the answer. And we begin to have a conversation about ministry. And I can't tell you how refreshing it is, Colton, to have a young man that is so passionate for Jesus Christ and to talk about ministry in a way that he and I both really comprehend. I mean, it's different. I've been a member at Trinity. I've been a ruling elder at Trinity. I've been an assistant pastor here at Trinity, now a senior pastor. I've been in all those positions. And it's this latter one that he can come in and he's one of those guys that I think might be a guy that can be in my inner circle sometime. We've kind of hit it like David and Jonathan. We've kind of hit it like... Others in Scripture that talk about a kindred spirit, like Paul and Timothy, were like-minded in a lot of things. It's scary, but it's good. And we can have that kind of conversation. You need that, believer. If you don't have it, begin praying about it. God, who can I pour out my life to? Who can be there at three in the morning? Who can I trust with whatever I have, whatever it is? You need that. Paul needed Timothy. Ministry was one thing, but he needed a personal relationship to help him do ministry and do it well. So that's our first point that we have. The second one is God is with us in conflict. God is with us in conflict, verses 14 through 18. So in this, we see Paul seems to be random again. And he talks about Timothy coming to see him. And oh, by the way, he does, I can't miss this point. He says, I need you to do something for me. And it's another command, bring my cloak. Bring the books and bring the parchment. Because I'm lonely, I'm cold, and you might say he's bored. Those books and those parchments more than likely was his copy of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, and other writings, things that he had jotted down over the period of time. Commentators say that this call that went out to Timothy and for him to bring Mark, John Mark, the one who betrayed him and turned like Demas on his first, or second missionary journey, first missionary journey, excuse me, and then Barnabas takes him, and he takes Silas, and they go two different directions, and they multiply the amount of missionary work that's going on in the world. We never know what the, if it was reconciled, seems that it may have been, but here's, Timothy, bring these things to me, because it's important. Even in the face of death, I want to be warm. A cloak would have been a large piece of heavy material with just a hole like a poncho that you would put over. So he wanted to be warm, and he wanted his books. We're forgetful people. We need the Word of God, constantly feeding ourselves on it day after day. Jesus said, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Bring those to me, Timothy. Bring those to me. And as he's thinking about having those things, he knows that Timothy has to travel to get there. And so he puts forth this warning. God is with us in conflict. I want you to know, Timothy, watch out for Alexander. Now, I personally believe this Alexander, and there's different thoughts, And you can read commentaries if you'd like on that. I believe this is the same Alexander that is in 1 Timothy 1 that was excommunicated from the church. That he has an ax to grind with Paul. And probably, probably turned him over to authorities. The Greek word that's used in here that talks about coppersmith can also mean an accuser. And so it is believed by some commentators that Alexander was in Troas. This is the place that they believe Paul was arrested for the second time and taken to Rome. Not under house arrest, now under a judicial arrest to stand trial for sedition, treason. And so this Alexander is believed to have been in Troas, which Paul would have said, if you're coming from Ephesus, Timothy, and you're coming to Rome, you gotta go through there, so beware. But God is with us even in conflict, even in persecution, even under oppression, and it is Paul's warning to him that is for his own safety, It says, beware of him yourself. He strongly opposed our message. In other words, he doesn't stand for Christ. He doesn't want the gospel to go out. There are unbelieving people that you might begin to share the gospel with. I'm not interested. And turn and walk away. There's others that want to take you out because you stand for Christ. I get this newsletter, Voice of the Martyrs. And you can't believe, brothers and sisters, what's going on in the world. I mean, here we've got it made. We might suffer physically, but we're not suffering from persecution. We don't have governments, we don't have armies, we don't have police forces, we don't have people that look to kill us, imprison us. That's out there, right now. So he says, beware of him. And then Paul does something interesting here. He says, the Lord will repay Alexander according to his deeds. God says, vengeance is mine. And Paul says, I agree. It's yours. And it's interesting, the language that he used here, will repay, same word that says, will receive the crown of life, be awarded the crown of life that happened earlier. So Paul believes that God will handle it. God will pass judgment. So conflicts, sometimes God works out. Other times, he leaves it for us to work out, which is where he goes next. So I have this enemy that wants to do me harm, God take care of him. God's with you in that type of conflict. And then he says, my first trial, it's a first order of action, is what the Roman government would have called it, a prima actio, like a grand jury. And he said, when I had that Timothy, no one was there. It was just me. Just me. One would have to wonder, there was a church in Rome. Where were they? Did they all become like Demas? Did they all say, thanks, but no thanks. See you later, Paul. Hope God takes care of you. They weren't there. But here's his Christ-like approach to that type of conflict or betrayal, desertion. May it not be charged against them. Paul shows forgiveness in conflict. There's many a conflict between some of us in this church, some of us and those outside of this church. We need to step back sometimes and pray and reflect. And if there's words of forgiveness that we can offer to the other, do so. Do so. Daniel Doriani tells the story of a college student who heard this actual message being preached and this portion of scripture that said, do not hold it against them. Daniel Doriani said that the young man was challenged to hold short accounts to take care of that. If nothing less, write a letter. The young man went home, took out paper and a pen, and he wrote his mother, sent the letter to reconcile some ill will between the two of them. He got word that his mother was ill. He took off and went to be with her right before she died. She was so happy to see him when he walked through the door. It was like nothing had ever happened. He thought, wow, things have changed. Did you get my letter? Yeah, it's right here under my pillow. We need to have forgiveness for one another, even if we think the forgiveness needs to come from the other. Again, this is relationships in ministry and in conflict. It's hard to do. But as Paul said earlier in this letter, the strength of the grace of Christ is what you have. And so we have that second point. God with us, even in conflict, He's there. He stood by Paul in that conflict. And he also stood by him and strengthened him, gave him what he needed when no one else was there. And the amazing thing is the ministry of God continued on because he made one last defense for the gospel. This would be before Nero's court, whether Nero was there or not, his court people were. So the court of what would become the controlling center of the civilized world after 70 AD and the church. Paul proclaimed the gospel like he did to Festus and Felix and Agrippa. There he stood, there he spoke, and God was with him because he knew God would rescue him. And God rescues all of us. There's three ways God can rescue us. He can rescue us from a temporal eviler, from someone trying to take our lives. But He also rescues us from the wrath of God that is to come. And finally, He rescues us in hostile situations. That's what it was for Paul. He was so confident that he would bring him out that he breaks into doxology. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Well, finally, let me say something about God is with us and final farewells. At the close of this letter, he gives another command to greet Prisca and Aquila, and then others lifted here. Do your best to come before me. come before winter. Paul knows his time is short. These are the people that Paul wants to recognize here. There's probably more. It's as if Paul is saying, thanks for being my friend. Thank you for being my fellow worker. There are 15 people mentioned in this chapter by name, by Paul. whom I'm sure loved each and every one of them as co-laborers for Christ Jesus. Even one named Linus. Irenaeus, early church father, wrote that this Linus went on to be the bishop of Rome. The people that Paul interacted with, the people that he discipled, like Timothy and others, became movers and shakers throughout the civilized world and beyond, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, preaching the word in season and in out. Do you do that? Do you look to do that? Brothers and sisters, I don't know what time we have left. Is it today? Is it next week? Is it a year? Is it more? Can you be like Paul or be like Timothy? Answer the call of Christ to preach the word, to share with someone, to have a relationship with one, that they might have the gospel of Jesus Christ, that they might receive forgiveness of sin, that they might have the grace of God. That's how he closes his letter. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. He began the letter with that threefold opening. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace really summarizing it all. When we think of these three words, grace, mercy, and peace, salvificly, grace is for the unworthy. Mercy is for the helpless. Peace is for the restless. But it's also for the believer. Grace for the trials of life. Mercy for our failures. Peace for our doubts. Grace for strength. mercy for endurance, and peace for contentment. I pray that we will live lives in light of our finiteness, that Christ might be glorified. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we do thank you for your word, for Paul's life and ministry, for his Discipleship of Timothy and Timothy's discipleship of others, many, many lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, even our own. Pray that we can live lives that reflect the great gift of salvation that you've given us, that we would see others in need as we were once upon a time. And may you be glorified through the work of this church. May our relationships with one another reflect yours with us, Christ with his bride. that a dying world can see the light and be saved. In Jesus' name, amen.