Deserted in Asia, Refreshed by Onesiphorus
2 Timothy 1:15-18 · JD McCulley · Jul 26, 2026
2 Timothy, No. 12
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/812636575205

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, so we're in question number 8. Before question number 8, can someone read 2 Timothy 1.15 and then we'll roll right in.

You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me. among whom are Phylogelous and Hermogenes. Okay, I'm going to ask you to pronounce those names. I'm going to ask you, Sue Ellen, to pronounce those names for the rest of the morning. Maybe I'll get it by then. It's funny, I was working through this study yesterday, and I kept asking Imran specifically, and Les, I was like, could you pronounce this? I just want to hear how you'd go at it.

And they're like, homogenies. And then Les had a scientific answer, which was actually Latin. And I thought it was a good pronunciation. We won't worry about that. But question eight will get us started here. So what was the reason that those in Asia turned away from Paul? Well, let me ask you this. Have you ever, let's make it personal here a little bit. Have you ever watched someone drift away from the truth they once held? Okay. And then the question is, where did it start? You don't have to be I'm not asking you to speak out loud about that. That could be personal for you.

But I think we've all been in situations where we've maybe even watched ourselves drift away, but certainly others in the faith. And Paul is sharing with Timothy something really personal here. He's watching people drift away from a truth that they once held. The idea of where did it start? Question eight, what was the reason? So we're going to go into that. I'm going to read from the notes a little bit here first.

Paul says that all the believers in this territory, and this isn't all of Asia, it was a small portion where we would be focused on like Turkey, but The bulk of what Paul is trying to communicate here is less about the territory and more about the drifting. So the commentary says, Paul says that all the believers in this territory had turned away from him. Can you imagine that? I mean, he's chained up and all of those that he had already spent so much time with Many of them had turned away from him, but this turning away was not for mere personal reasons, as the context indicates.

In chapter 1, verse 13 and 14, Paul had just been speaking of the necessity for guarding and defending the truth. And then in 2, 17 and 18, the two individuals mentioned in verse 15 are said to be involved in a departure from true doctrine. And I think we want to hold on to that. It was for doctrinal reasons that those in Asia turned away from Paul. So thinking about geography a little bit, Asia is the province where Paul, he poured out three years of his life. I don't know what we're in.

So from 2023 to 2026 in our context, Paul had invested three years in these folks where, and it says in Acts 19.10, where all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord. So Paul had been very busy amongst this province and this area, and they had all heard, however, Many had turned away from him. And I think that this verse is really filled with a deep suffering from Paul. It doesn't mean that the circumstances caused him suffering. It's those that he saw lost from what he had invested in their lives. Verse 15 puts it in context. And verse 15 is right between 13 and 14, right? So what does he say in 15? Guard the truth.

And then the men who strayed from the truth and then the turning away, turns out their turning away was doctrinal before it became personal to Paul. So That's a drift that happened to Paul. And I think for those of us that are sharing the truth and we have a desire to maintain a closeness to doctrinal teaching, we find those that we've taught to finally, at some point, many of them, in Paul's case, maybe for you it's different, but there was a drift And the first thing, the first lesson that we get from this is that they didn't turn from Paul first, they turned from doctrine first. And then that became a personal thing to Paul because he suffered.

It hurt his heart that there were those that had heard and learned and had sound doctrine and yet turned away. And I think that this is one of those things where when you loosen the grip on the word of scripture, you can let go of those who delivered it to you as well.

And that's what Paul is feeling. So I'm gonna ask you guys, have you experienced that? Don't feel like you need to answer it personally, but when you think about I've given sound doctrine yet I see a drift in the lives of those that I've invested in and it causes my heart to hurt.

That's what Paul's dealing with here. So as you think about that, This is what an unguarded deposit looks like a generation later. We talked about guard the deposit of sound doctrine, Paul. And then Paul says, Timothy, guard the deposit of sound doctrine, Timothy, because if you don't, there will be drift. Does that make sense? Are you tracking with me? Okay, well that answers question eight. Let's look at question nine. What was the result of Paul's request that the saints in Asia come to his aid when he was arrested in Rome? What happened? Nobody did anything, did they? Nope. Nobody did anything.

And he starts to bring out names, doesn't he? So to read from Macaulay, when Paul was arrested in Rome and accused of introducing a new religion, that's what he was accused of. That's why he was chained up. He apparently sent a request to certain ones in Asia, that small portion of that province, asking that they come to his aid. He asked them to come, help me. And the result of that request is stated in verse 15.

And Macaulay says, the bitter account of the cowardice of Phagellus and Hermogenes is all we know of them. or all we need to know. Paul is anxious that Timothy not be among those who display such disgraceful fear. I was thinking about Philegius and Hermogenes and the fact that they were named by Paul in scripture, and this is all we know of them, or all we need to know of them.

They didn't even attempt to come to him in that situation. And he passes that loss in his heart over to Timothy to not be among those who display a fear. So Paul was arrested. He's on trial for his life, right? We've talked about that. I've painted the picture over the last several weeks about what that looks like. But he's able to send words to Asia, and he's basically saying, come stand with me. And then nobody comes. And two names survive out of that silence. It's Fagilius and Hermogenes. One sentence in the scripture, and that sentence is, all we know about them and all we need to know, when the request came, they didn't show up.

Do you think the Lord told him, not specifically, but do you think Paul was aware that he was going to be suffering in this manner? Yes, but in light of that suffering, he is still writing this letter to Timothy about what he's dealing with. You know, you think about, here we've learned about sound doctrine and guarding the deposit that you've been given, and then Paul says, I trust the Lord with this completely. However, Timothy, I'm reminding you that here's the circumstances I've been under, and here are the folks that haven't showed up for me. Don't go down that path. And we talked about, it was like back in lesson three, the whole idea of the fear that shrinks from the duty when holding a conviction gets perilous. There's that fear. Don't shrink under fear.

And so Paul is very conscious, and it gets really personal here, because there are a lot of names mentioned. We're gonna get to another one in the next verse, Here he is saying that I've seen those that shrink from duty when holding on to a conviction, and when it gets difficult, they don't show up.

And Paul says to Timothy, do not be ashamed, join with me in suffering. So to answer your question, Donna, he not only knew it, but he invited Timothy into it. Don't be ashamed, don't shrink, not when it gets hard, hold fast was the word that we, or the phrase that we came up with there. He says, join with me. Paul knows he's going home shortly, so it must have been really a heart matter with him.

And to have an entire province in Asia abandon him at his time of need, he's telling Timothy, don't be among them. How do you think that relates to our scenario today? You've got sound doctrine, you're holding on to it, There's those that have heard, there's those that have come along, and then they drift. Not to say that they've lost their salvation or whatnot, but they don't have your back anymore.

And that's what Paul was dealing with. And he's writing Timothy and saying, don't be that guy that drifts from sound doctrine. Stay close to the Lord Jesus and his word. And it had to have been very tempting for Timothy if Paul were to write these things. Remember, even to associate yourself with Paul, a prisoner in Rome, for the new religion or the false religion that was not of the Roman mindset and belief, was to basically sign yourself up for a death sentence.

I mean, we feel bad when we align ourselves with certain politicians and we talk about it. But it doesn't mean that we're facing imminent threat, at least not for us. There are those in the world that do, certainly. But for those of us here in Colorado and the United States, we feel protected and we have a certain amount of freedom.

But that freedom had been completely taken away from Paul and Timothy. And for Vigilius and Hermogenes, they caved underneath that pressure. And they just said, nope, we're out. And Paul says, don't be ashamed, Timothy. Join with me in the suffering. Don't be among these folks that have done those things.

Let's read verse 2 Timothy 1.16.

Actually, Wayne, if you could read 2 Timothy 1.16-18 for us.

The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus. For he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my claims. But when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me. The Lord grant to him to find mercy from the Lord on that day, and you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus. Thank you. So question 10.

Who is Onesiphorus? Who is this guy? What is he like? Just based on what we just read, what is this guy like? And contrast it to what we just heard about the other two folks. You could say he's faithful. Okay, faithful to who? Well, to the teaching, really, I would think of Paul. Well, what's interesting is he was faithful to the doctrine because he loved Paul, and therefore he loved what Paul was teaching him. But the verse says that Onesiporus refreshed him. because he was not ashamed of the chains. Now, we have to think about the question, was Onesiporus a pastor or a teacher or someone, an apostle?

Macaulay says he was simply an early church believer. It wasn't any of those things. He was just an early church believer. and yet his name is recorded in scripture forever. Macaulay says, Onesiporus shows some of the basic elements of true friendship, and he lists four things.

First, he was loyal. He did not depend on pleasant circumstances. He didn't care. Second, his loyalty did not depend on safe conditions. Rome, not safe. Third, his friendship did not smother, but rather refreshed. And then fourthly, he was a friend such as this is rare.

That's what Macaulay says. Another expositor says, it's natural to suppose that he was dead. There's those that think that he died for this cause or the coming to Paul. Robertson actually hints that he may have lost his life at the hands of Rome by reason of his visit to Paul in prison. And in 419, the household of Onesiphorus is greeted.

So, this guy has No title to his name. No office. No epistle bearing his name. He's an ordinary believer, if you want to call a believer ordinary. But Paul writes his name down. And if we look at those four marks of his friendship, Onesiphorus had loyalty that didn't need pleasant circumstances. When you think about biblical loyalty, I think this is what Paul is defining as loyalty to him in his moments of his death sentence. He knows where he's headed, and he's counting these things out in a way that the Lord guided him through.

Loyalty that didn't need pleasant circumstances. He was there, and it didn't need safe conditions. And his friendship didn't smother Paul, it refreshed him. It gave Paul a breath of fresh air. And Paul's own verdict of that is this was rare. What Onesiphorus did was rare. He was the kind of friend that amongst the entire province that he had seen learn from his teachings, drift from them, Onesirus didn't and he's reminding Timothy of that kind of friendship. And Paul prays for his household and he asked for mercy for him on that day.

And I think that that is hinting towards the end of life, right? And you put those things together, it's really probably pretty natural to suppose that He was possibly killed for visiting Paul. So if that's the case, which I think there's a strong reason to believe so, here you've got an ordinary believer paying the full price that that entire province of Asia refused to risk. One man showed up and it could have possibly cost him everything for doing so. Gets pretty personal in this part of the letter, doesn't it?

Any thoughts before we move on to question 11? All right. Question 11. By not being ashamed of Paul's change, chains, excuse me, gives us a clue to Onesiporus' love of Paul. And Mike asks us to explain that. So explain not being ashamed of Paul's chains.

What do you think that the chains look like in Paul's day? Is it handcuffs behind his back? That's how we think of them. Or like a ball and chain? This word, it's not chains on a wall. It's the cuff binding Paul's wrist to a Roman soldier. 24-7. So when I painted some pictures earlier in this class, I didn't picture it quite like this until I got to this word, the word chains. It's a manacle or handcuff he was handcuffed to a Roman soldier 24 hours a day Commentary says by not being ashamed of Paul's chains Paul means that Onyxia for us was not deterred from visiting Paul in prison by any danger which he might incur by reason of the fact that he was a friend of a prisoner who was a Christian and Who was on trial for his life? And I think Wiest's translation helps us a little bit here. He says, it was not ashamed of my handcuff, singular, not plural.

So think of your hand, your wrist, being bound to the person sitting next to you 24 seven. And that person next to you, Linda, is a Roman soldier. So Wayne is your Roman soldier. And you guys are, he's chained. But this scenario is real. I was just trying to give you a visual of it since I'm not there. I would have walked up and actually chained you with the, no I wouldn't have. So he's cuffed to a Roman soldier and Onesiphorus has a desire to come visit him. So imagine that situation.

Instead of just talking through a cell or talking through some bars on a cell, he's talking to two people when he comes to visit. And Timothy is thinking about this. There's rotating guards that are coming in and they hear everything that Paul is privy to for the rest of his life. So Paul doesn't just get to hear the comforting words from his friend and fellow believer, Onesiphorus, so does the guard that he's chained to.

So to visit a prisoner is to walk up to the empire's own soldier and hand over your name as the friend of a man on trial for his life under Nero. Remember what that guy did? You don't get an anonymous visit. You don't get to have a phone call between glass windows or glass window. You talk to Paul while chained to the Roman guard on duty. and Onesiphorus went anyway. And everything that he said that refreshed Paul, that Roman guard heard.

Macaulay says, moving from Paul, the apostle, to Timothy, his representative, and now to an ordinary believer, we learn that every believer is to be bold in his Christian testimony. Can you think about what Onesiphorus had to settle in his heart, to approach Paul, chain to a guard, refresh him in sound doctrine, talk about those things, be comforted in those things, and that guard was going to report every single thing that he heard. That's, like, in their mind, that's guilty by association and also by testimony. I often thought about what went through the mind of the guard.

He's being witnessed to and he can't walk away from it. He's stuck there to listen. And I'm sure the Holy Spirit worked in the heart of some of those guards, too. We don't know. Paul talked in one of his other letters about how many people, guards, had come to know the Lord. Sure. And when Nessifas came with him, that gave another witness by not being ashamed. And they said, wow, maybe there's something to this. Who knows? I think that that's a really great observation. There were many guards that had to sit and listen. They were forced to. And what do you think that they witnessed? Here are these two friends that are holding fast during immense suffering, and this guard is part of it.

But here you have a Onesiporus that doesn't have office, but he has boldness. And in chapter 1, verse 7, it talks about the spirit of power and love and discipline was given to us. And that same spirit, Paul says, is in us. It's in you, Timothy. And I saw it in Onesiphorus. I saw it for myself. I think what I leave you with, with this particular lesson, is Onesiporus had the exact same, you can say the word, equipment.

He had the same training and teaching and capability, no office, no apostle, he was what we might say an ordinary believer. He's the same as we are. And what was different about him than those that fled all in Asia? He believed it. He believed what Paul was teaching about the Lord Jesus. And so you have sound doctrine. You may or may not be in office. When this first wasn't, We could all find ourselves relating to Onesiporus in the same way.

He believed the doctrine that was being handed to him. And because of that doctrine, it had very consequential outcomes in his life that led him straight to his friend, loyal to the end. He knew the risk and he did it anyway. because he believed what God said was true. He reckoned on it.

Remember, reckoning is considering it so. So, you're probably not gonna be visiting a friend in prison this week. Maybe you are. However, the point is, is that you will face dire circumstances. whether it be the sale of your home, or the moving into a new home, or health, or friendships, or relationships, or jobs. To reckon on the truth is to find freedom from the circumstances that will inevitably overwhelm you if we don't depend upon the one who supplies us that peace, that understanding, the wisdom to face the circumstances.

And the fact that Onesiphorus was mentioned in scripture and recorded in history in this way, I think it speaks volumes to a love for the Lord Jesus and a love for those that he's put in your life. In this case, Paul really wants Timothy to understand this because he thinks that Timothy is going to go through many struggles in the same way.

All right, we're at time here. Let's pray. Father, how we thank you that loyalty and commitment and these things are not works that we do. They come from a relationship with you. They come out of a life that is entrusted to the life that you've given us, the new man, and that is empowered by the Holy Spirit to produce. And we see that.

We see that in Paul and his suffering and the things that he was dealing with. We see it in Timothy. and how he was to be guarding these truths, and we see it in Onesiphorus, and his loyalty was not out of his own, it was out of the love that you had given to him from sound doctrine that was passed to him, and ultimately sound doctrine finds itself completely in your son. And so I pray that we would abide above, that we would place our trust in the truths of who we are in Christ, and that that would produce the kinds of love to our fellow believers that we see here in Second Timothy. Just pray for the next hour as the Word is laid out, and that you would illuminate the hearts that hear it. And most of all, Lord, we thank you for the grace that we live under again. So thankful. It's your name we pray. Amen.