2nd Timothy 4:9-22

So this morning we're going to look at the closing of Paul's second letter to Timothy. I have to say that any time anyone ends up teaching in the Sunday School classes, that anyone ends up teaching through the close of the letter, it seems to always fall on me. I say that with some sarcasm.

It's not always true. But the worst part about the closings of letters is that Paul mentions a bunch of names, and then when you go to look up to find out information about that person, all you ever find is that they also were mentioned in the closing of another letter. So some of these people that we're going to cover this morning, we're not going to have as much information about as we talk about who they were historically in the biblical context. That won't be absolutely the case.

Fortunately we have some information and Paul has also sprinkled some good doctrinal nuggets in here as well. So don't despair. I promise it won't just be a boring history lesson. Although if you're like me, history is not boring so that's not too big of a deal. Let's go ahead and I'll read out starting in 2 Timothy 4 starting in verse 9 all the way to the close at 22.

All rights, make every effort to come to me soon, for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service. But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments.

Alexander, the coppersmith, did me much harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching. At my first defense, no one supported me, but all deserted me, may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.

To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus remained at Corinth, but Trophimus I left sick at Miletus. Make every effort to come before winter. Eubolus greets you. Also Putins and Lenus and Claudia and all the brethren. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

So there, as you have now witnessed for yourself, are quite a few names there on that list, as well as a little bit of geography. So we have a lot of things that could be covered One thing I wanted to point out is that persecution seems to have been heightening at this point in time.

When Christianity started, how was it viewed primarily by the culture around it? What did they think it was? That's right, it was a part of Judaism in some people's minds. It took a little while for it to kind of break outside of that. Stan? I think it was also called Little Christ and it was kind of derogatory. Yeah, and the Christians, they were looked down upon in various ways, but it was still viewed primarily as a sect of Judaism. Strangely enough, what would cause that to shift outside of being a sect of Judaism? What was one of the major points that turned that into a different direction?

Gentiles. Gentiles. Who was responsible for that? Primarily Paul, yeah. And so, as Paul went out, he brought, because of the ministry the Lord had given him, he brought a lot more attention to Christianity as a separate religious idea that wasn't part of Judaism.

So the persecution was heightening. When it was just a part of Judaism in the eyes of the world, they could just say, oh, it's just more of those crazy Jews. Because if you were a polytheist or agnostic of some sort, then that was not a big deal. So the persecution was heightening.

So Paul says to Timothy, make every effort to come to me soon. And just for visual impact, I have a map. If you look at your handout, it's grayscale because our copier is black and white. So I hope that everybody has at least a high enough contrast image there. You can see there's quite a bit of distance. Now I looked for Bible maps and I could find Bible maps that would show this difference, but I thought it was kind of fun to use the modern computer maps.

So if you say, give me directions from point A to point B, you can see this is the roadway that was there, but much of those roadways are actually still based on routes that historically were there. Obviously there might be some, as the crow flies, straight lines that could have been done historically by foot. If you look in Italy, there are some places where it squiggles south.

By foot you might do that slightly differently, but the highways may make that a little bit more efficient time-wise. That is approximately 1,300 miles, not 13,000, there's a big difference, So if you say, hey, by foot, you're going to go 1,300 miles, that's a long travel, a long trip to travel. By boat, you're actually probably going to go more miles in general, because you've got to go around all the peninsulas and the things that are part of the Mediterranean. But your physical exertion in general is probably lower, unless you're a sailor, in which case that might be different. So Timothy, when Paul says, come, he's still talking about roughly 1,300 miles. That's a long distance to travel.

And the letter that he's saying, hey, Timothy, come, that's got to travel that same distance. And then Timothy's got to get the letter, hand off his duties, and then turn around and come back. And it sounds like he's got to make sure he makes certain stops, which may add to the length of his trip. So Paul isn't just saying, hey, do you mind coming down the street? Or even, can you come from a city in the same peninsula?

This is quite a journey that Paul has asked Timothy to make. Now, I don't think that's unreasonable. Clearly, the Lord has provided for them and they've traveled enough in their ministry together that Timothy's not going, oh, that again? Not that. But Paul says, hey, come.

I've made the journey from here in Denver all the way to Indianapolis, and I've made the journey from here to Carson City, Nevada. They're almost equidistant. And we drive one long day, and it's about 20 hours usually. And that's about 1,100 miles. So this is sort of like the equivalent between Denver and San Francisco. That's roughly what we're looking at. It's a long walk. It's a very long walk. And there's some water in between. Unless you go all the way up around the boot, or up around to the top coming down from the boot, which would have been risky for political and geographical reasons.

So Paul says, hey, make every effort to come with me, or come to me. And that's a pretty big deal. Now Paul's called Timothy. And this is his last letter. He's just said, I'm being poured out like a drink offering, right? He's preparing to die. It's a big deal.

But then Paul continues on, and he says, for Demas, having loved this present world, and I have there, if you look in your handout, in brackets there, better translation is age. This present time. It's not cosmos or cosmos. world, it's Eon, or Aeon, which has to do with time. So he has loved this present time. Why does Paul talk about this present time? He was distracted. But Paul's forward thinking. He is the future time.

I was going to say that it goes back to the Hebrew passage where strangers, or aliens, not the city here. The earthly things just don't matter with a heavenly perspective. But Paul writes about Demas was distracted and he deserted and went to Thessalonica. That doesn't mean that Demas lost his salvation. But he's definitely distracted by the worldly things that are around him.

And so it's a bit of a bummer there. Do we know anything about Demas? Does anybody have any recollection of Demas from other passages? I've got a C also there. I tried to do some cross-referencing ahead of time for us. So if somebody wants to turn to Colossians 4.14 and someone to Leman 1.24. Do we have any nuggets on who this Demas guy was?

If you get to Colossians 4.14, go ahead and read it out loud. Just jump on in. Luke, the beloved position of Nehemiah's preacher. So, that's not really useful. I mean, other than he was with Paul, I mean, that's good. There seems to be, at least historically, a general attitude of faithfulness, even if at this present time he's deserted Paul.

And then, Philemon 1.24. which I'm just going to circumvent and say also doesn't tell us anything. We don't know a lot about Demas other than he traveled with Paul for a while and was faithful for a while. He's a person of some historical importance in the sense that he had a ministry along with Paul. If you can imagine being a teacher traveling like Paul and you're going to go out there, there is a certain level of risk about going out there and Demas was faithful, at least for some time, going with Paul and dealing with those trials and tribulations that would go along with being with Paul.

When you read Acts and you see what Paul went through, you don't get a sense of, oh that would have been fun. It would have been like you were going to die any moment now if the Lord was done using you. The Lord preserved them, but their lives were under threat all the time. And Demas stuck it out until Paul was in prison and in Rome, and then it was too much.

He eventually chickened out. He went to Thessalonica. So Paul was disappointed by that. Then he moves on and he says, Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. That should not be understood that those two guys deserted Paul as well. There's not a reason for us to believe that they took off and were chickens like Demas. So Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia.

And unfortunately, every time I read Dalmatia, it makes me think of a Disney cartoon. And dogs. But we have these folks that are in there. Let's see here. Make sure we've asked all the right questions. That modern name for that, by the way, is Kosovo. It's Kosovo. It's Dalmatia, huh? Yeah. Kosovo, that's where we had NATO action or experience. That's a big deal. Yeah.

Now the next question that's on the top of page two is what do we know about Titus? And really that one we could spend quite a bit of time on because there's actually a lot of information written about Titus. Titus was very important in Paul's interaction and ministry with the Corinthians. So So Paul actually refers to Titus multiple times in 2 Corinthians where Titus seemed to have been his agent for carrying the letters and interacted with the body there and came back and reported to Paul about the Corinthians.

It's been a while and my recollection is not as fresh as it once was for when you went over 2 Corinthians. But I know that You said the 2nd Corinthians letter seems to have a written set of answers where he seems to be responding to written letters and then some things that seem to be verbally reported. Is that a proper recollection? That was 1st Corinthians that had that.

That's not very useful. So that may not have been Titus. Sorry about that. I don't want to have bad theology in here. But let's take a look at Galatians 2 verses 1-3, where we'll see about Titus. Now I co-taught in the Galatians class, and I have to say that this first part of Galatians is a bit of a rough passage to teach through, because there's not always as much doctrine as there is some historical elements in there. However, this is an important one because the historical and the doctrinal intertwine. So let's take a look at this. Galatians 2 verses 1 through 3.

Then after an interval of fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. It was because of a revelation that I went up, and I submitted to them the gospel, which I preach among the Gentiles. But I did so in private to those who were of reputation for fear that I might be running or had run in vain. But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised."

And he keeps going and talking about the doctrines there of how do the Gentiles and the Jews interact. What's the purpose of Galatians, if we had to summarize it? I thought this was an easy one, but maybe it's because I co-taught the class. How do we summarize Galatians?

You're under grace now. Very good. We're not under the law. You could say it that way. The more positive way is definitely that you're under grace now. The negative way is that you're not under the law. So Paul is dealing with, here he is having his first early interactions with the apostles and he is teaching grace. And he's teaching grace to the Gentiles.

And Titus was with him. and Titus was not circumcised to comply with the law. Titus' ministry with Paul was a very, well I'll call it lifelong although obviously there were times before they got together, but it was a long-term ministry together and Titus was faithful and he had an understanding of grace. So Paul continues on after having mentioned Titus as we go back to 2 Timothy. I didn't mention Crescens again because we don't know anything else about Crescens.

He's another one of those guys, you get a one-off mention and it's like, okay, there you go, that's free. The one thing I will say this, what's really cool about this is that if you think about it, there's a bunch of people that Paul mentions that we don't know anything else about. And someday when we get to heaven, I think it'll be kind of cool to be like, oh, that's that person. I don't know if we'll care then, because we'll be looking forward rather than spending a lot of time looking back, I think. But it's still kind of cool that we have this opportunity, that this is an eternal brother. So we have that going on.

And then Luke says, or Paul says, only Luke is with me. Luke is a doctor, right? Dr. Luke. And I think that that is a kind of an interesting thing. If you're getting old and aged and you're in prison, like Paul is, then having Dr. Luke there may have been of some comfort, even if the medical technology was not quite as sophisticated as now. That and Luke was a faithful apostle.

Paul writes, he says, pick up Mark and bring him with you. Now what do we know about Mark? Related to Barnabas. He's related to Barnabas. His original, or I think his proper name was John, but he goes by Mark and seems to be carried on as Mark throughout the New Testament writings. What happened to Mark at some point in time? Because Barnabas and Paul and Mark went out together. Paul and I guess Barnabas on one of the missionary trips.

He bailed on him, and that's a big deal. You're already running high risk being with Paul and Barnabas, but then if you're midway, then you've got to figure out how to get back. That to me is just like, I don't know, you're gambling. in a very metaphorical way, not literally. The Lord is protecting them. But you're already in a high-risk situation, so turning around seems no less risky.

After the second person, when you have another person, I think their main benefit is the fact that they provide a slightly different viewpoint, a broader understanding. more of a we're in this together thing, you know, because it's a bigger group of solidarity. And so I think it's more of an emotional help than just a safety help. Yeah, I think the safety element of this is that he was probably under watch of guards anyways. So the safety element of that was less important as much as the fellowship. And then also Paul had a ministry mindset, at least according to this text, that was going on until right at the end. He's in prison, he's in chains, and yet there's things to be done.

Several years ago, when we went on a family road trip, I stopped at my grandparents' house and my grandpa said, well, here's your grandmother and I's five-year plan for how we're going to try to help further and edify the body. It was the coolest thing ever, because in my mind at that point in time, I'm significantly younger than my grandparents. That's probably not a shock. But in my mind, I just hadn't thought about having a five-year set of plans for ways you'd like to be a steward of your resources and your time and make sure the body is edified.

And it was really cool to have that reminder and Paul had that same mindset. Hey, we're going right until the end. Stan? I was going to say, it's interesting that What was the slant on Mark's gospel? Do you recall Matthew was... I don't have these memorized. Romans? There's actually two to Romans, huh?

That's how interesting it's at. Because they both got their experience through Paul and Paul's ministry. So the significance there is not minor. But Barnabas and Paul parted ways on account of Mark. There was tension that came from Mark being there. But Paul, and here's the funny thing, is that Paul split ways because he didn't want to bring Mark. But what does Paul say? He says, bring Mark. He's useful.

I think one of the things that's interesting is in the same passage, there's Demas, that from any record we have, seemed to be doing okay and then headed south. Then here's John, then headed south. the Lord restored it. That is an important mindset to have as believers is that when you see someone veering away, if they don't seem to be responding to leadership and biblical correction, the Lord can still draw them back. I think that as a principle, causes me to really reject some of the legalism that is prominent in some denominations today, where they say, well, if you're not faithful all the way through, start to finish, then you're not saved. They see you walk away, oh, that person's not saved, and I say, you don't know that, and you also don't know what restoration path the Lord has in mind for them to show His grace. Stan?

Do you happen to know how many years may have transpired over the course of the three missionary journeys, because this thing with Mark and Barnabas, that actually was on the first missionary journey, right? They were going out on the first. So Mark had stayed a number of years, plus amount of growth through Paul's ministry. And he was probably quite a bit younger, obviously he was quite a bit younger.

So there's three factors there that really could have I don't have the dates on that. 20 years approximately. About 20 years. But 20 years from John Mark bailing out to this letter. Okay. And a lot can happen in 20 years or at least... My experience so far, if my life is any proof of anything, 20 years can be a big time difference. An observation. Sure.

Paul and Barnabas had a parting of waves. And I think that their heated parting of waves was a failure on both their parts to recognize that God had called them to different ministries at that point. I think that Barnabas had a place in restoring John Mark, and Paul had a very different ministry. And they shouldn't have fought over it. Yeah, well the fighting is definitely, that's not the Holy Spirit. guiding you into the fight necessarily, especially between two men who have been called to go preach the gospel.

So yeah, it's an interesting problem to have seen historically and then also cool to see that the Lord restored Mark and that Paul recognized that and was like, hey, bring him here. The thing is that we don't know at what point in time Paul found that out, or at least I have no recollection of it and I didn't find it in my studies. So it's kind of cool to see that that had happened over time.

Now the next person that we run into here is Tychicus. And he says, but Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. And the cool thing about Tychicus is that Tychicus seems to be the guy that Paul sends with letters in several places as a, I'm going to call him a relay man. He sends Tychicus with the letter. He sends it to whomever he's sending it to.

And then says, Tychicus is going to stay there so you can come to me. And you can do this thing with me. And then go back, and then I get Tychicus back. It's kind of like a deposit. Here's Tychicus, the deposit relay man. You're going to go there. And so Tychicus is in Ephesus so that Timothy doesn't leave a gaping void and can go back to Paul.

And if you look at your handout there, it says, what do we know about Tychicus? And you can see he's mentioned in Acts, he's mentioned in Ephesians, he's mentioned in Colossians, and then also in Titus. Let's take a look at Titus simply because we're going to be there next.

So Titus 3.2. I'm sorry, 3.12, yes. When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there." Here he is. I'm going to send this person. He's the relay man. He's going to cover for you. He's the substitute teacher, which maybe is a slightly understated title. But he's an important guy for continuity.

If you think about it, how many of you would love it If an important person in your life, for spiritual growth, got a letter and said, I've got to go, and was gone for, let's assume that these journeys don't take a three hour flight, or a couple day drive in a car, he's gone for months. And Paul recognizes this gap. If you've got months of gap time like that, your spiritual growth may be stunted. I hate to use absolute terms there, but the likelihood is pretty great that your spiritual growth is going to be stunted. Especially at this point in time when they didn't have the finished New Testament. They didn't have all the copies.

So Tychicus comes in there, and he's the substitute teacher. Oh, I guess I already answered the next question. Why would Paul send Tychicus? And the answer is, as I said, he's the substitute teacher. Then Paul continues on in his letter, here with 2 Timothy. When you come, bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments. Now the cloak, why would you need a cloak? Just out of curiosity.

It's wintertime, he's got winter coming up. He's in a prison. And it turns out those are not really well insulated. And good foam ceiling around the windows and the doors lock real tight. And they make sure that you've got nice warm clothes on between your shackles because that cold metal would be awfully uncomfortable, right? So Paul is here and he's in prison. He's like, hey, bring the cloak. If he survived the winter before without it, which is kind of the impression that one gets from this letter, he probably was well aware of the need for that cloak.

I'm still alive, I'm still ministering, but hey, as I get older this would really be nice, even more so than maybe when he was younger. And then he talks about the books, and especially the parchments. And we don't know exactly what was on those. Some people have proposed that the books were for reading and the parchment was for writing. It's not explicit. But the books, what would we be able to guess the books are? Okay? Very likely the Old Testament. And the parchments may have been other letters and other things that have been revealed about Christ and written about Christ. But either way, they're words that are written that are important to Paul's ministry, and he wants to make sure they're preserved.

If you leave, okay, imagine this time, you're, we're not worried about Paul for the moment, but you're Carpus. And Paul shows up and he comes into your life. What does he leave with Carpus? A cloak, which means that Carpus may have been in need and Paul saw that need and said, you know what, you take this.

The Lord will take care of me and provide for me. And then he leaves the books and the parchments. That's huge. Not only in the the element of his ministry, Paul's ministry, but also of your corpus, that you have these resources at least temporarily available to you. That's a generous thing on Paul's behalf.

Paul continues on and he says, Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm, the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Now, the interesting thing is that we see Alexander And, unfortunately, we really don't know who Alexander was for sure. He's a coppersmith. There's a couple Alexanders that we do find through the New Testament, but it's not obviously one of the other ones. So this may be a different Alexander.

He mentions an Alexander in his first letter to Timothy, in 1 Timothy 1.20. But we're not sure that it's the same Alexander.

Either way, the guy had persecuted Paul. Paul warns them about vigorous opposition. What could vigorous opposition lead to at that point in time in history? Death. That's a very final closing type of thing, but at least lots of persecution, right? And if Alexander the coppersmith was an idol maker, Paul had run into that in various other places, they really don't like that you're cutting in on their business. It turns out. Probably was making a lucrative trade, whatever it was, and he was very aggressive towards Paul. And so Paul warns Timothy, watch out. This guy's really a jerk and he has it out for us. Paul continues moving on.

He says, in my first defense, no one supported me, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them. So in his first defense, the best we can guess about that, at least that I was able to find in my studies, was that he was presenting his case. He had appealed to Caesar. And he had finally been able to present his case. But no one stood up with him.

He said, all deserted me, but we don't really know who that was either. It's probably not these people that he's mentioned just a bit earlier. It may have been, but we don't know for sure. It was unlikely that Luke was there yet when that had happened, as far as the piecing of the chronology together goes.

But Paul, as much as he was sad that no one stood up with him, doesn't stop there. Where does he keep going to? What does he say next? Okay, the Lord stood with him, but before that? Yeah, may not be counted against them. That is a gracious attitude. This guy has been through so much. Here he is, he's at this defense. This is pretty critical. This could mean his life. Hey, it may not be counted against him. What? Not? He'll get what's coming to him? Yeah, that's gracious. And he says he'll get what's coming to him about Alexander. Hey, he's got... He's got what's coming to him.

The Lord will, in eternity, punish him, assuming he doesn't become a believer, and take care of this problem. But with these people who aren't standing up with Paul at his first trial, or his first defense, it may not be held against them. Now that is not only spiritual, but also amongst the body.

If you can imagine the pressures of the body, if there's already persecution. If you found out that, hey, you know, and I'm going to pick on Demas because he's a name that's in the text and he ran away like a chicken. If you got Demas here and you found out that Demas hadn't stood up with Paul, do you think there'd be a little bit of pressure there on Demas or a rejection or neglect of who Demas was on that account? The social pressures at that point in time, if your life is on the line, or severe persecution is on the line and you find out somebody else is being a chicken, there's going to be some social pressure there. Paul says don't hold it against them.

How many times within the body do we have much smaller things go on and it causes church splits? Not at Holly Hills so much, which has been a tremendous blessing. But I've been part of bodies where there were jerk splits over things where you look back and you go, that was so dumb. People get all worked up over things that were of much less consequence. Color of carpet, yeah. That's because we know that there are sanctified carpet colors and evil, wicked carpet colors. And they are worth dividing over. It's funny how that stuff goes on, but it is amazing to me.

Paul says, here he is, he's defending himself before the Roman courts, and he says, no one stood with him, but don't count it against him. He says, but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. So the Lord stood with him and strengthened him. What is the importance of Paul's having referred to the Lord's standing and strength? Why does it matter? What if he could have left that out? Let's say he's writing a letter, or he's dictating it. Why does he mention it?

It's inspired by the Holy Spirit. There's got to be something there. It's a new position of truth. Okay, a new position of truth. Had Paul been through some things by now? Paul had been through some stuff, and he knew being without, and he knew suffering, and he knew all of those things, and he knew that the utmost important element of all of that was that the faithfulness of God. was there. The Lord was faithful with him and strengthened him. It wasn't his own unction. It was the strength of the Lord.

But the purpose of it was so that through Paul, the proclamation might be fully accomplished. And that all the Gentiles might hear. Stan? As a thought, if you really looked at Paul's life, you might say that It wasn't very blessed. In a conditional sense. And so this is maybe something that he's adding there that it's not always a bed of roses, but sometimes just the opposite.

Yet the Lord's still there to strengthen you. If you look at all of the things Paul has been through, and definitely in his letter to the Corinthians he outlines those things, the persecution was high. The suffering was high. But the Lord was faithful and strengthened him.

Which is, in part, what are some, I mean there's a lot of doctrine that relates to that, but what are some doctrines that tie in with that kind of suffering? What does the Lord do in provision for those things? He lets us have the suffering, and what does He use it for? What is the benefit of that? We get growth from that.

Here's Paul, And he sees God's hand in God's preservation and God's strengthening. After having gone through all the stuff, he knows, I'm not done until I'm done. I've heard it stated this way, and I'll be careful when I state this, this is not an explicitly biblically revealed doctrine, but the idea is that you're invincible until God is done using you for his ministry.

David knew when he was going up against the Philistines that God had a plan for him. It might involve him dying, but he knew that he didn't have to be full of fear. Paul knew, as he was going in to face the Roman court there, whose hands was he in? Did he have to be full of fear?

No. Growing up as a kid, I remember my dad sharing a story with us about an atheist general holding a gun up to... Dad, do you know what story I'm talking about? Yeah. Tell the story. It was before I was born. I was a missionary in China when the communists came in.

And one of the communist Chinese officers held a pistol up to his head and was threatening him because he wanted Dick Hillis to tell him who are the other Christians and where are they. And Dick wouldn't tell him. And so the officer put the pistol up to his head and said, you know I can blow your brains out. And Dick Hillis says, that's all you can do.

And I grew up hearing that story. Thank you for retelling that, Dan. I grew up hearing that story. And it hasn't been until in more recent years that the fullness of that statement has resonated a little bit more clearly. But that's all you can do. What's the worst Paul's going to face that he hasn't already faced before? You're dead. Okay, now what? Oh no, now I get to go be with the Lord. Not that!

And the thing is that the doctrines that Paul has been teaching, he is living out. And that's really cool to see. Frankly, any time you get to see doctrine lived out, even if there is sadness for the loss of somebody, even if there is sadness for the difficulty of it, the faithfulness of the Lord is there, and it's a rich, rich thing. Paul wants the Gentiles to hear. He says, "...and that all the Gentiles might hear."

That's his ministry. That's what he's been given by the Lord, and that's what he wants to see fulfilled. He's not done. He's not done until the Lord says you're done. Keep going. Keep moving. Keep teaching. Keep preaching the gospel so that you can be proclaimed. Even during a trial. Even as you're defending yourself. Hey, I was just... Hey, you guys think I was doing something wrong? Do you know what I was doing? Let me tell you what I was doing.

So there's this guy, Jesus Christ. And he died on the cross because you're all sinners. And he rose again on the third day. so that you would not go to hell, so that you could spend eternity with God. That's all I was preaching. Again and again. You want to go to trial again? Sure, I'll go preach the gospel again. Paul's faithful. He stands up.

The Lord strengthens him, because he wants the Gentiles to hear. And he keeps going, the proclamation may be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. the destruction, death. In the case of being fed to lions, no. He was rescued out of the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.

Eventually, Paul did die. We don't have an explicit, inspired text that tells us how he died, but the tradition, as I understand it, is that his head was chopped off. Is that what you understand to be true as well, Dan? So the Lord brought him safely to his heavenly kingdom, even with his head being cut off. the Lord rescued him from every evil deed.

And I think that as a doctrinal concept is a bit harder as believers. The Lord is going to preserve you and take care of you until you go home to be with Him. Even if that is through the demise that comes of nefarious sorts. Someone would come and be evil and wicked and kill somebody and persecute Christians and slaughter them. That still happens today. The persecution in the Middle Eastern world of Christians is very high. People lose their lives.

Not irregularly. But the Lord has preserved them until that time when he brings them to himself. And that as a doctrine is a little rough because it's not easy. The secular mind looks at it and goes, you guys are crazy. But Paul knows God's faithfulness. God knows that he's going to preserve him until the time that it's time for Paul to go be with the Lord. And Paul, like any good preacher, closes his letter only to keep going.

He says to him, be the glory forever and ever, Amen. He says this thing, that's a great close, you could be done Paul, but he's not. He's got just a little bit more to say. but not to be terse and trite on that, but he glorifies the Lord. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I've been through all the trials, I've been through all the suffering, Timothy. I'm going through this difficult time. May the Lord be glorified forever, in my life, in your life, eternally. And then he keeps going. He says, greet Prisca and Aquila, or Priscilla and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.

Erastus remained at Corinth, but Trophimus I left sick at Miletus. Miletus, as it turns out, was really close to Ephesus. It was south of Ephesus. So it would be possible that when Paul writes that, he's letting Timothy know, hey, at least the last time I saw him, he was here. You may want to check on him. It might be either you go that way and then catch a boat, whatever is there. Here's Miletus. Then Paul says, make every effort to come before winter, especially if you've got that cloak. Get here before winter.

The person is cold. Ubulus greets you, also Putins and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren. So each one of those names, Ubulus, Pudens, Linus, and Claudia, are one-off references. We don't have a lot of historical content for them. But they are there. Let's step back. I'm sorry, I skipped over some of the questions. Who are Presca and Aquila, or Priscilla and Aquila? Who are they? Ten makers. We've heard of them before, just a little bit.

They were also fellow preachers of the gospel. They were important to him. They were precious to him. You can tell in some of the other letters. Hey, these people are really precious to me. They always ministered as a couple. Which is awesome. And not otherwise. That's really cool. Oh, you didn't hear it? They always ministered together as a couple. We don't have any record of any exceptions. And boy, that right there could be a rabbit trail of application. But it is important. Let me just say this. Here's something we can draw from that as a principle.

Husbands and wives should have a ministry together. Often in our culture, one of the two is, and often men, but not always, I can think of exceptions, where one of them gets all the attention and is in charge of ministering in whatever capacity. I will say, in some cases, very unbiblically. And then there's this other person that just happens to be hanging around and their job is to just make sure the other person's okay. I don't know. There's not a couple ministering to the body. It's often that one person.

Even if you look at the elders at Holly Hills, The elders are the men and they work together at Holly Hills, but their wives are really important to the ministry that they have. Go ask Roger. Go ask Mike. Ask my dad. How important is your wife in your ministry? Their answer won't be, well, you know, it's really helpful when sometimes I need somebody to bring me a change of clothes. It's not trivial things. Their ministry, their spiritual ministry, is very important as a couple. So Priscilla and Aquila are definitely important there.

Paul had mentioned Onesiphorus in 1 Timothy 1.16, and I'll just flip back there if you've got your Bibles open and go ahead and you can do that as well.

First Timothy 1.16, he says, Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate.

Whoops. 1.16 is wrong. Is it 1.6? No. Is it 2.16? No. I always love it when I do that. I fat fingered something or decided to write the wrong address down. Apologies for that. Well, I can tell you for sure he's mentioned somewhere else. Let me see if it's a cross reference in my line notes in my bottle. I apologize for Getting that incorrect becomes a distraction.

Oh, 2 Timothy 1.16, not 1 Timothy. Apologies. Nope, that's not it either. No, 1.16.

Yeah, 2 Timothy 1.16.

The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me. So his faithfulness, thank you for your patience on that, that is an important element there. He wasn't just patient with Paul's chins, he searched them out. That's really curious.

Stan? I think it's also interesting that they have one quote among them, and yet you don't ever hear or see in any of these letters the expression of need. of thankfulness for providing for Paul's food and his care when he was there. You never see them saying that they're in need or that they need supplies or that they need help. Yet they've got one cloak. It's pretty thin resources. There's no Walmart. The Lord is definitely taking care of every single one of our needs down to the one cloak we get to share. But yeah, that's the thing that's so interesting about this is that there is such faithfulness with so little.

I've been wrestling with various decisions in my household. Jess and I have been married now for 13 years, and there are times when it's like, oh, we don't have this, or we don't have that. Just two weekends ago, we bought a new washing machine, because our washing machine died, and I thought, oh, man. You know, we've got to get a new washing machine. And the sad thing, do you have an extra one? Is that what you're saying? I happen to know somebody in the body needs one. It's not us, but if you do have one, let us know. But it's like, oh, here's this really big need. We've got to have a washing machine, because heaven forbid, we have to do it by hand. That's not going to happen, right? Not in today's society. But yet, they had one cloak. and somebody that's not Timothy and not Paul has it.

Carpus has got it. But yeah, the Lord had provided for their needs down to the very minimum, but that was okay because he provided every spiritual blessing. And it's humbling for me. It's easy to be distracted by this stuff. Alright. Was it love? Yeah. I like fires.

So the last verse in this letter to Timothy, he says, the Lord be with your spirit. At first when I looked at that I said, The Lord is with our spirit. What does that mean? And then I realized that if you were Paul, and you're winding down at the end of your ministry, and no one stood up with you on your first defense, and you're in prison, and this guy's bailed on you, and these people are gone, and you've only got Luke with you, you're going to be maybe emotionally a little bit impacted by that. in the flesh, as far as the flesh would be responding.

He says, Timothy, the Lord be with your spirit, the Lord be your encouragement, the Lord be your comforter. Yeah. I think that's a reassurance. Yeah. It's a blessing, because the less you can depend on other people, the more you notice you need to depend on God. And that's where he belongs in primary importance. We're looking at something else. We're wrong. Don't wind it down. Yeah.

The second bell is rung and people are waiting outside. We'll just close here in just a second. I will say, he says, Grace be with you, which is a common intro and exit for a letter. But Paul, by this point in time, has helped Timothy understand grace in ways that the Romans had never intended when they said charis. Let's close in prayer and then people can come in. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time that we have together studying your word and this time that we have to look at this precious letter from the Apostle Paul to Timothy. We do pray that as we continue next week into Titus that we would continue to set our minds on things above and Lord, we just pray for deep fellowship here as a body so that as trials and sufferings do come up in our lives, we can come alongside and encourage one another, even if it isn't from 1,300 miles away. We just thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.