You Pass The Faith By Finishing Well | 2 Timothy 4:6-22 | Pastor Dave Hentschel

For all of us, please turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 4.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Flip over to the last page of that book.

We're coming today to the last word, to the last word of this series, to the last words of this letter, really the concluding words of the Apostle Paul's whole life.

And so today we're going to talk about finishing well.

As you're turning there, I do a lot of hospital visitations as a pastor, and one particular visitation sticks out in my memory forever.

I was doing a hospital visitation for a man who was near the end of his life.

He was on hospice care, and the situation was very sad.

It was clear as I was visiting that his family relationships were fractured.

It was clear that there was tension with his wife and with his children.

It was clear that there was years of unresolved conflict.

It was clear that there was addiction issues that had left some deep wounds in this family.

And as I prayed and then walked out of the hospital doors that day and walked over to my car, I started crying.

I started weeping, and I remember praying this prayer to God that day.

Lord, I give you permission to do whatever it takes in my life so that when I come to the end, it doesn't look anything like this.

That moment stays with me.

That moment confronted me with this reality that it is possible to waste years.

It is possible to damage relationships irreparably.

It's possible to get to the end and have some deep regrets.

This is why the Bible repeatedly calls us not just to begin well, but to finish well.

And so that leads us to a really important, sobering question for all of us today.

How will you finish?

If you do a study on the characters of the Bible, on the leaders of the Bible, many of them did not finish well.

Only about a third of them finished well.

One example that comes to mind is King Saul.

Some of the last words of King Saul's life were, I have played the fool.

I have erred exceedingly.

There's a poem that I heard years ago.

It was simple but incisive.

The poem was called The Night They Burned Shanghai.

It was written during the Japanese invasion of China during World War II, and it contrasts people who were playing bridge in Philadelphia while terrible events were happening on the other side of the world.

And the end of the poem goes like this: For some men die in shrapnel, and some go down in flames, but most men die inch by inch playing silly little games.

How will you die?

Everybody's gonna finish somehow.

Some will drift away, some will burn out, some will finish well.

In today's passage, what you're gonna see is two men, one who finishes well, one who doesn't finish well.

And it's in the contrast that we find a great lesson for us.

Now, to the naked eye, the one man looks like a total failure.

By human standing, this guy has been rejected by his own people, he's been rejected by his friends, he's been abandoned by his friends at the end, he's he's been rejected certainly by the Roman Empire, and he's spending the last few days of his life in a hole in the ground called the Maritime Prison.

But there's more than meets the eye.

That's just the visible eye.

To the invisible eye, there's this great hope, there's this reward he talks about, there's this crown laid up for him, and we're gonna learn from him.

So, today's message will be about six principles for finishing well.

The title of my message is You Pass the Faith by Finishing Well.

That's what this whole series is about, passing the faith to the next generation.

One of the components of that is finishing well as individuals.

I want to read the text in its entirety.

We'll pray and then we'll look at the details.

So uh, if you're able, I would invite you to stand at this time in honor of God's word as we read it together.

I'll read it, you listen.

Verse 6, we'll go to all the way to verse 22.

2 Timothy 4, 6 to 22.

Hear the word of the Lord.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Do your best to come to me soon.

For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

Crescins has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, Luke alone is with me.

Get Mark and bring him with you.

He's very useful for me for ministry.

Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.

When you come, bring the cloak that I have left with Carpus at Troaz, also the books and above all the parchments.

Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm.

The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.

At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me.

May it not be charged against them.

But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles might hear it.

So I was rescued from the lion's mouth.

The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

To him be the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onecephorus.

Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill at Miletus.

Do your best to come before winter.

Ubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.

The Lord be with your spirit.

Grace be with you.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Heavenly Father, we come before you as we stand this morning grateful for your grace, your mercy, your sustaining power.

You are the God who not only calls, you are the God who keeps, you are the God who strengthens, you're the God who promises never to leave or forsake your people.

As we look at your word today, we ask that you would give us attentive eyes, ears, most of all hearts, humble spirits.

Help us to be willing, to be obedient.

Teach us through the example of your servant Paul here what it means to finish well.

Strengthen those who are weary, encourage those who are suffering.

Correct those of us who may be drifting.

Anchor all of us more deeply in Christ, for we want to finish well for Him.

And we ask it all in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

And everyone said, Amen.

You may be seated.

Six principles for finishing well.

Principle number one, you finish well by seeing your life as an offering to God.

I'd like to say these together.

Would you say that with me if you would?

You finish well by seeing.

Amen.

For this, take a look at verse six.

Paul begins this passage by saying this for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

The word departure there is fascinating.

It means to untie.

It was used to untie a ship before you had set it out on its voyage.

This is how Paul views death.

This is how Christians view death, not as the end, but as being set off on a voyage.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was in prison for conspiring to kill Hitler, described it this way.

He said, Quote, Death is the supreme festival on the road to freedom.

This is what Paul is thinking about.

This is what Paul is living for.

He says this elsewhere, Philippians chapter 1.

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

If I stay here and live, good, let's get to work.

But if I die, that's actually better by far.

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is game.

The term already here, I want you to notice that.

What that means is he's speaking in the present.

This is something happening.

This is something happening right now.

He is a drink offering.

A drink offering is a technical term from Numbers chapter 15.

Numbers 15 · chapter mention

It was called a libation offering.

Next to the altar, there was a pitcher.

And inside of that pitcher there would be fluid, such as water or wine.

And the purpose of that symbolic offering was you take something that would be yours, that was something you need or something you enjoyed, and you would pour that out on the altar as a pleasing aroma to God.

So what's happening here is Paul is interpreting his whole life and his death as a drink offering.

Think about this.

This is Saul of Tarsus, the one who was, humanly speaking, opposed to the Lord Jesus and all of his disciples, in fact, overseeing the persecution of Stephen.

And this man who was knocked off his horse by Jesus himself has now completely turned his life around.

And in Acts chapter 9, he was told all the way back there by Ananias, I will show Paul, God speaking through Ananias in chapter, Acts chapter 9, verse 16, I will show Paul how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

Acts 9 · chapter mention Acts 9:16

Did he have any idea that he would end up here?

This was Christ's design for Paul the Apostle to lay down his life.

And Paul saw his life as a sacrifice, as a drink offering.

And brothers and sisters, that is how you and I need to see our lives as well.

Our lives are offerings to God Himself.

You are pouring yourself out.

You're pouring yourself out to the very last drop.

Your life is not your own.

It's an offering that you give to God.

That's how you finish well.

You finish well by seeing your life that way, as an offering to God.

Point number two.

You finish well by remaining faithful through the entire race.

Let's say that.

You finish well by faithful.

Yeah.

Here, instead of in the present tense, he's gonna change to the past tense.

Look at verse seven.

Verse seven, looking backwards now, Paul looks at his life and he says, This I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race.

I have kept the faith.

There are three verbs here that are all in what's called the Greek perfect tense.

That's a past tense that has a permanent sense to it with ongoing effect into the future.

Thought, finished, kept.

Really, the order of the sentence is this: the good fight, I have fought, the race, I have finished, the faith, I have kept.

So he uses three different images here to describe what it means to be a Christian.

Being a Christian is like a fight.

It's like a boxing match.

It's like it's like a wrestling match that has been fought, and Paul has fought the fight, and he calls it a good fight, meaning he's fighting for the right thing and he's fighting in the right way.

Secondly, he says it's also like a race, like a marathon.

I'm running, and I'm running this race.

You may remember 2 Timothy 2, 4 to 7 says to be a Christian is like being an athlete who gets crowned as long as they compete according to the rules.

So this refers to running the race with a certain kind of integrity about your life.

And thirdly, there's a faith that has been kept.

The faith here is a technical term that refers to the totality of Christian doctrine.

He has kept the faith intact.

I think about the apostles' creed.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

That whole creed, that's the faith that he has kept intact.

He has not compromised on the faith, one iota, despite much pressure to do so.

He has not defected, he has stayed true to his Lord Jesus Christ and to the Bible and to its teachings all the way to the end.

This is important because elsewhere Paul talks about people who did the opposite of that.

1 Timothy chapter 1 says, There are some who made shipwreck of their faith.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Paul says, I didn't do that.

I kept the faith.

I have fought this good fight.

I have finished the race.

I have kept the faith, which is amazing.

In short, what you're looking at here in verse 7 is faithfulness.

You're looking at perseverance, you're looking at tenacity.

This is a beautiful thing when you see someone, by God's grace, finishing in this way.

We love stories of tenacity, we love stories of perseverance.

This is why the greatest movie in all of the world, Rocky Balboa, won Best Picture in 1977, because he was faithful to the very end of that match.

This is why people watch that Muhammad Ali Joe Fraser fight over and over and over, because Joe Frazier took a beating again and again and again, and he kept coming at Muhammad Ali till both of his eyes were blind, and his trainer had to hold him back and throw in the towel, and Frazier still wanted to keep going against Ali.

He had tenacity, he had perseverance.

We love these kind of stories.

This is why we love Chariots of Fire and watching Eric Little run with all of his might because when he ran, he felt God's pleasure.

This is what we're talking about here.

We love the movie Rudy from the 1990s.

That's about a kid who wanted to play Notre Dame football and would not give up.

He was persevering.

He had tenacity.

He wanted to finish.

Have you ever seen a couple that's been married for like 75 years?

And it's so beautiful to see that perseverance, that tenacity, like wow.

There's something awesome about a human being, by God's grace, who doesn't quit and perseveres to the end.

But this is Paul.

He's a finisher.

So how about me?

How about us?

How about you?

Will you be a finisher?

When that day comes, when you grow old, when you're on your hospital bed or when you're on hospice care, can you say something like verse seven?

Can you say that?

Will you be able to say that?

If that is your heart's desire, my encouragement to you is to ask yourself, what is that work that God has called me to do?

Is there any unfinished business or unfinished work in my life right now?

Has God told you to do something, but you've been resisting it and you haven't yet done that thing?

My dear brother and my sister, opportunities pass.

I encourage you to obey and finish the work God has for you to do.

Because you finish well by remaining faithful through the entire race.

Number three.

The third principle of finishing well is this you finish well by living for eternal reward, not present comfort.

Let's say that.

You finish well.

All right, you guys gotta do better.

Are you awake?

This is 11 o'clock service.

We've seen the present, we've seen the past.

Now we're gonna fast forward to the future.

Look at verse 8.

Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who loved his appearing.

The word appearing there is fascinating.

What is it?

The answer is it's the appearing of Christ.

And there's a debate because there are two appearings of Christ.

There was a first appearing, and there was a second appearing.

So some scholars say this is referring to the first appearing of Christ, whereas other scholars say this is referring to the second appearing of Christ.

And for me, I am persuaded by the latter.

And the reason is because the term in there, that day, speaks about a future day that is not yet come.

And the context of all of chapter four of 2 Timothy also is speaking about the second coming.

If you have your Bible, look back at verse 1 of chapter 4, or I'll put it on the screen for you, where Paul says this I charge you in the presence of God and in Christ Jesus, who's to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom.

Here we're talking about the future, right?

The future judgment of the living and the dead.

This is talking about the second coming of Christ, when he will return to judge the earth, and he is the righteous judge.

Contrast that with Nero, the unrighteous judge that Paul is standing before today.

Paul's standing before the unrighteous judge, Nero, but while standing before Nero, Paul also knows, and Paul confesses, there is a higher judge, there is a higher throne, and one day true justice will flow from that throne, from the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, and the Judge of all the earth.

I trust him, because he's the judge of all the earth.

May I ask you, are you prepared to meet the judge of all of the earth?

When you stand before him, the Bible teaches that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But the good news of the gospel of Jesus is that the judge took off his robe and took on the penalty of the sinner and took the sentence of the sinner on behalf of those who had sinned against him.

And if we place our faith in the Lord Jesus as Savior, then one day we have nothing to worry about when we face him as judge.

I urge you, my brother and sister, if you have never said yes to the Lord Jesus Christ, may today be the day.

If you want to finish well, or if you want to run your race, that is step one for running this race.

Next question about that verse, go back to that.

What is this crown of righteousness being referred to here?

Is it that some Christians get a crown and other Christians don't get a crown?

I don't think so.

I would say if you don't get this crown, you don't get life.

You don't go to heaven.

There's a parallel in James 1:12, he speaks of the crown of life given to those who love God.

James 1:12

And the term righteousness means in this letter, real lived out righteousness in your life, not imputed righteousness.

All the places where righteousness is used in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy always refers to lived out righteousness.

So the crown of righteousness is a reward for you living out righteousness, confirming the fact that you have been imputed with righteousness from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Another way to say that is 2 Thessalonians 2.13, where he says, We are saved through sanctification.

If there's no sanctification, then we are not saved.

Or 2 Peter 1.10 says this be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.

So, to get to receive the crown of righteousness, we are to live out righteousness.

And this is given to Paul, but it is also given to more people.

Notice to all who love his appearing.

In verse 8, it says, the Lord Himself will award him this crown.

The Lord Himself.

Now, could you just imagine this for a second?

Imagine receiving this award, the crown of righteousness, you, from the Lord Jesus Himself one day.

Just imagine that day.

I don't know about you, but maybe you're a parent out there, it's graduation season, you're you're in this situation where you got this crowd, and maybe you're there at a school or a sports banquet or somebody like that, and somebody in the crowd gets publicly honored.

And you have this whole audience, and nobody knows who's gonna win the trophy or who's gonna win the award or the plaque, and then somebody's name gets called, and then they get called up to the front, and then that person shakes their hand, and the audience applauds for them, and they get recognized in front of all of their peers or their whole school or the whole graduating class, and it's a wonderful experience for that person who has worked so hard and who has earned this reward.

But as wonderful as those kinds of earthly experiences are, again, can you imagine the Lord of glory calling your name, your name, and saying, Here's your crown.

Well done, good and faithful.

Paul says, I am so looking forward to that day.

I'm obsessed with it.

It's all I can think about.

I'm living for that day.

I'm looking forward to that day.

And brothers and sisters, we ought to live for that day too.

It's not just for Paul, it's for all who love his appearing.

And on that day, all your sacrifices will be worth it.

Every ounce of effort you put in will be worth it.

Every trial, every tear you've cried, everything you've ever done will be worth it on that day.

Paul says these light and momentary afflictions are not even worthy to be compared with the glory that is to come.

Here's Paul in prison in this dark, dank hole in the ground in Rome, and he's not fixated on the chains or what's going on in the present.

He's fixated on the future.

And so that's how you finish well.

You finish well by living for eternal reward, not present comfort.

Now, not everyone chooses to live like this.

Not everyone chooses to live for eternal rewards.

And we'll see that in the next verse.

Look at verse 10.

For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

Notice that term, this present world.

There's a contrast here in those who live for this present world compared to those who live for the world to come.

And there's a man named Demas who's receiving some stern words here because Demas was in love with this present world.

There's a doctrine in theology called the perseverance of the saints.

And what that doctrine teaches is that you're not saved because you bowed your head when you were six years old at VBS and asked Jesus into your heart, and then you went out to live like hell the rest of your life.

What that doctrine actually teaches is that God, the Trinitarian God, has made a covenant of grace to redeem for himself a people.

And then in time, he sends his Holy Spirit to create that people for himself and regenerate individuals unto life.

And then he places those individuals into the body of Christ, where they will learn and where they will give and where they will serve and where they will grow.

Now they may stumble and they may fall, but they always get back up and continue that process of growth and sanctification and transformation until the very end.

He who endures to the end will be saved, Jesus said.

This is why the book of Hebrews says in chapter three, for we have become partakers of Christ if we keep the beginning of our commitment till the end.

Back to verse 10.

I want you to see a key contrast going on in this verse.

There is one who loves Christ's appearing, and then there is one who loves this present world.

See the difference?

There is one who's finishing his race, and then there is one who has deserted the race halfway through the marathon.

There is one who is going to receive a crown, and there is one who's going to receive condemnation if he does not turn things around.

And there is only one who has kept the faith.

The other one has abandoned the faith.

What is the difference between these two individuals?

The difference is what they love.

Notice, you have two loves here: one who loves Christ's appearing, and one who loves this present world.

And so here's what we learn from this verse.

How you finish is determined by what you love.

Is that you?

What do you love?

Do you love this present world or do you love his appearing?

I'm not talking about how you love to study eschatology.

There's a difference between loving the teaching about the coming of Christ and loving the Christ who's coming.

Those who pursue and persevere in sanctification and who pursue righteousness and love his appearing, they will receive this crown.

And this is the crown that Paul is focused on right here while he's in prison.

Can you see that?

One of my professors, Dr.

Jeff Bingham, who was teaching us about this, said, You have to see this with Michelangelo eyes.

Michelangelo eyes.

One time he said I was visiting Rome and he went to go visit that jail cell where Paul stayed.

You can go there today, where he wrote this letter, and it's just a dungeon.

And he said, You look at this dungeon and you have to see that dungeon with Michelangelo eyes.

Eyes to see what's really going on here.

Here's what he meant.

If you go to Florence, Italy, there's a magnificent museum there named the Academia.

And when you enter into that museum, there are several unfinished statues there by Michelangelo that have not yet been completed, and they were not completed, and then Michelangelo died, and he never finished those four statues.

We call them the four slaves because they're half finished.

There's torsos sticking out of the marble and there's heads sticking out of the marble, but they have not yet been finished.

From those blocks, you can see emerging these figures, but you can't tell exactly what's going on.

So you pass by the four slaves and you continue down that hallway, if you will, and you'll find a large room in the center of that museum.

And once you enter that large room, you will see this lovely, brilliant white statue of King David, Michelangelo's David.

The perfect Renaissance expression of the human being.

Every muscle in David is perfectly formed.

He is ruddy and he is handsome.

And as you go in there, every man who sees that statue of David hangs his head in shame and runs out of the museum only to discover his wife is not with him.

He has to run back to get her.

She's still in there staring at that statue.

And he has to pull his wife away from that statue.

And every man leaves that museum promising never to eat a piece of pizza again.

So in that museum, you have the four slaves because Michelangelo sees the majestic form in the marble.

He sees what you and I cannot see.

When I look at a marble slab, I see a marble slab.

But Michelangelo saw within the confining, within the restricting, within the bland block of marble, he sees a form of freedom.

He's able to somehow see David.

And so as we look at this prison, as we look at the end of Paul's life and we see him sitting here in this prison, do you have Michelangelo's eyes?

Because sometimes jail cells are not jail cells at all.

They're castles.

And sometimes crowns of gold end up looking like crowns of thorns.

And sometimes chains are not really chains, they're actually freedom.

And sometimes liberty appears like captivity.

And sometimes princes appear as criminals.

And sometimes true freedom looks like bondage.

Can you see with Michelangelo's eyes?

Can you see beyond the hardship of this age for the eternal blessed freedom which is to come?

Can you see what Paul saw?

Can you see?

You finish well by learning to see and living for eternal rewards, not present comfort.

Number four.

You finish well by continuing ministry until the end.

Can we say that?

You finish well.

Continue with me, if you will, with verse 10.

Creskins has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, Luke alone is with me.

Get Mark, bring him with you.

He's very useful to me for ministry.

Tychicus, I've sent to Ephesus.

When you come, bring the cloak that I left with carpis, the troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

What's going on here?

What's going on here in this section is Paul, at the end of his life, is concerned with the things of this world that will carry on for eternity.

And there's only two things.

There's only two things in this world that will carry on forever: the word of God and the people of God.

And these are the two things that Paul is consumed with.

Because the trappings of this world will one day melt with fervent heat, but these two things, the word of God and the people of God, will endure forever.

So notice with the word of God, Paul wants his Bible.

He wants the scrolls, he wants the parchments, he wants the books, he wants to study this book right up until the end, my friend.

There's no other book that you can do this with.

Paul goes back to the Bible, and you, my friend, can go back to the Bible no matter how old you are.

You'll never exhaust the infinite treasure that's inside of that book.

You'll keep digging and digging and digging, and you'll find new treasures and new treasures right up until the end.

Paul loves the word of God.

Number two, Paul loves the people of God.

Look at what he's concerned with.

He's dispatching workmen all over Galatia, Dalmatia, Ephesus.

Even though he's in prison, he's like running the show.

We have the fulfillment of what was said earlier in this letter, right?

I'm bound, but the word of God is not bound.

He's got this guy, Kreskins, he's got Titus, he's got Luke, a doctor, probably taking care of his old beat-up body.

He's got Tychicus, and of course we know he's got Timothy.

Notice he says, bring Mark, which is super interesting because he had a falling out with Mark in Acts 15.

Mark was a problem.

Mark abandoned that first missionary journey.

He withdrew, but then something happened.

He recovered.

Many people say he wrote the gospel of Mark, and Paul wants him to come because Paul is giving him grace, new grace.

Paul wants Mark.

Paul has grace for restored servants.

He's got evangelism going in this section on like five fronts, if you count it.

This guy's busy.

Think of it.

Here's a man at the end.

And he's still dispatching workers, he still wants his books, he still wants to write some more.

My friend, the lesson that we learn from this verse is that you might retire from your job, but retiring from faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ does not exist.

What you want is you want death to interrupt your ministry.

One of my professors at Dallas, Howard Hendricks, said there's a great lie in American culture today.

It's the lie about the myth of retirement.

Now he doesn't mean the idea of no longer taking a paycheck, no longer clocking in and out.

That's not what he means.

He means the idea that you go get a Winnebago and you travel between Montana and Florida and you play dominoes and you collect seashells every day, and that's all you do, that's it.

That idea is not in the Bible.

It runs counter to the Bible.

It runs counter to how God made you.

You never, Hendrix said, you never retire from serving Jesus.

You run your race to the end.

You can retire from a job.

You do not retire from the Christian life.

In fact, if you do a study on sociologically how quickly people die after retirement, the statistics are jarring.

Once that person loses their sense of purpose and they lose their sense of what am I going to do today, it's amazing how quickly they begin to fade.

Hendrix said they blow out their aorta on the way to Sarasota.

That's not what you want.

You want to keep going.

If you ever study Caleb in the Old Testament, at the end of his life, this guy's 80 years old.

80 years old.

And he goes, Give me this mountain.

It was like the hardest mountain for them to take.

This guy's 80 years old.

He's like, I could take this.

He's finishing well.

Psalm 71 is the psalm for the aged.

You should read that later on today.

I'll just read one verse, verse 18.

The psalmist praised this.

He says, Even when I'm old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.

This is what the psalmist wants to do.

This is what the whole series has been about.

2 Timothy passing on the faith to the next generation.

That's what you want to do.

You want to invest in the next generation and teach them what you know.

I saw a quote one time, Alex Haley.

He said, The death of an old person is like the burning of a library.

You know things.

You have a wealth of knowledge.

You need to pass it along.

You want to be like this psalmist, investing in younger people, depositing in them what you know and what you've learned, especially what you've learned about Jesus.

You finish ministry, you finish well by continuing ministry all the way to the end.

Verse uh point five.

Point five.

The fifth principle for finishing well is this you finish well by trusting Christ when people fail you.

This is a hard one.

Let's say this together.

You finish.

Yeah.

I learned this the hard way.

Verse 14.

Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm.

The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.

Alexander the coppersmith, jot down in your margin, Acts 19, 33 to 34.

He's probably the guy from Ephesus, along with the silversmiths in Ephesus, who hated Paul.

You know why they hated Paul?

It's because they had a trade, and their trade was crafting idols.

And Paul came in and spread the gospel and said, You shouldn't be worshiping these idols anymore.

And that had a monetary impact on their lives.

And so evidently this guy, Alexander, never, never let Paul get away with that.

He did Paul much harm.

We're not exactly sure what he did, but here's Paul referring to him, saying, Hey, watch out for this guy.

And what I get from this verse is a little bit counterintuitive, but I think it's a good principle.

Paul was hated by the right people.

You don't want everyone to love you.

Jesus said, Woe unto those who are well spoken of by all men.

That's not what you want.

Paul has enemies.

You know why?

Because God has enemies.

But Paul is not bitter.

This is the trick.

Yeah, he's got some critiques for this guy, but somehow Paul is at peace.

How?

Because he's entrusting him to the Lord's hands.

Not my problem.

Above my pay grade.

The Lord will take care of him.

I want to drop anchor for just a second.

Have you guys ever talked to an older person who's consumed with bitterness?

You ever talk to or hang around an older person?

And all they want to talk about is how they were wronged in their life, and they have so much resentment, they have so much unforgiveness, they have so much anger, they have so much bitterness that they can't move forward, they're stuck.

Do not do that.

Paul says, Don't instead trust God with that.

God's going to take care of them.

And as a result, Paul gets to have peace.

The section continues with verse 16 as Paul says this.

May it not be charged against them.

But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

What's going on here is that there was some kind of tribunal.

Paul was brought before to have a hearing, and he had a test, he had to testify on his own behalf.

And I want you to notice Paul saw that as an opportunity to proclaim the gospel.

If that was me, if that was you, if that was our situation, if we were in prison for being a Christian, we would probably think, oh, my opportunities are being lost because of this situation that I'm in.

My opportunities are being taken away because of this.

That's not how Paul saw it.

And that's not what Jesus said.

Jesus actually said in chapter 21 of the Gospel of Luke, he had a prediction saying, one day you're going to be brought before kings and governors, and that's going to be your opportunity to witness.

So Paul says, This is my opportunity.

I'm going to proclaim to the Gentiles the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

That was my first defense.

We're not exactly sure when this occurred.

We do know no one stood by him.

And the reason is because Nero, the Caesar, was collecting the Christians, lighting them on fire, and using them as torches in his garden.

Are you going to that court case with Paul?

No one came.

He was alone.

And yet he doesn't hold that against them.

You know why?

Because God was right by his side.

Notice the contrast.

All deserted me, but the Lord stood by me.

See it?

Brothers and sisters, people may fail you.

People may not come through.

But the book of Proverbs says there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

In those moments when people fail you, when people fail us, we can be strengthened by the Lord.

I think there's a special grace for this.

Jesus promised us in Matthew 28, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.

In those moments where you feel alone, where you feel deserted, where you feel forsaken, claim Hebrews 13, 5.

I will never leave you nor forsake you, so we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper.

What can man do to me?

God is there, right by his side, standing with Paul.

So there's never a moment, God says, when I'm not with you.

Here's the principle here.

Human abandonment does not mean divine abandonment.

No way.

Now I want to say something.

Today, so many people, when human beings in the church let them down, even fellow Christians, they leave the church.

That is not, they turn on Jesus.

That is not the response of Paul here.

He does not hold that against them.

Humans have let him down.

But he perseveres, and God stands with him.

May we follow in his steps.

The text continues.

Paul says this so I was rescued from the lion's mouth.

18.

The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

To him be the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

What was Paul rescued from?

What will he be rescued from?

What exactly is the lion's mouth?

There's tons of debate about this.

Could be the Colosseum, could be Nero Circus, could be death, it could be Satan.

1 Peter 5 says, the devil, your adversary, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

We're not sure.

But Paul says, God has rescued me from the lion's mouth.

He will sustain me.

And brothers and sisters, he will sustain you and rescue you from the lion's mouth as well.

Daniel 6, God rescues Daniel from the lion's mouth.

Paul is standing in that line.

There's a beautiful benediction about God's ability to keep us in those dark moments in the book of Jude.

I'll just read it for you.

It says this to him who's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all ages, now and forevermore.

Amen.

God is keeping you as his child till the very end.

We're talking today about how we need to finish, and that's true.

But there's a promise, a foundational promise, underneath of that exhortation.

Underneath of the imperative is an indicative.

Underneath of that command is a promise from God to you that before you are expected to finish for him, he finished for you.

The Bible says, He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.

There's only one other person in the New Testament that uses this word finish.

Jesus.

Do you remember what he said on the cross?

It is finished.

He said, I have finished the work that my Father had for me to do.

Jesus finished that work on Paul's behalf, and as a result, Paul can now finish the work that God gave him to do.

Underneath of our ability to finish well is our trust in our sovereign God who already finished well for us.

Jesus laid down his life for Paul, and only now How can Paul lay down his life for Jesus?

After we first embrace the finished work of the Lord on our behalf, then by the power of his spirit, living on the inside of us, we can follow him, and there is grace for these moments, and we can finish the work he's given us to do.

So, brothers and sisters, hold fast to him who holds fast to you.

You have the best of all advocates and the best of all generals in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Say with Paul, having received mercy, we faint not.

Lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet.

Your sender will not desert you.

Put your hand to the plow.

No weapon formed against you will prosper, and every tongue that lines up against you will fall.

God keeps his people.

You finish well by trusting Christ when people fail you.

Let's look at the final words again.

19.

He finishes by offering some greetings to some friends.

Greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onecephorus, Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill at Miletus.

Do your best to come before winter.

Ubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.

Look at verse 22.

The Lord be with your spirit.

Grace be with you.

I think right there in verse 22 is the whole point of the letter.

I think right here in verse 22 is what Paul has been concerned with this entire letter.

I think this is what Paul is worried about.

He knows he's about to go.

And he's starting to be concerned about what?

Like a succession plan.

He's worried about what's going to happen after I'm gone.

This is why he writes this letter to his protege, Timothy, that his spirit would be strengthened so that this Christian movement would endure long after he is gone.

So in verse 22, when he says, May the Lord be with your spirit, I take that to be the human spirit.

This is the main point of the whole book.

This is why he picked up his pen, grabbed parchment, and started writing to this guy.

Look at what he said in chapter one.

Let me remind you.

Chapter 1, verses 6 through 8.

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

Timothy, for God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.

Therefore, Timothy, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

May the Lord be with your spirit.

May you be strengthened, Timothy, to do this, to fan into flame the gift of God that is in you, to have this fearless spirit, to be unashamed of the testimony of our Lord, to embrace your gift, fulfill your calling, and preach the word.

That's the whole point of this book.

May the Lord be with your spirit.

So that Timothy will guard the good deposit and teach it to others who will be able to teach others and to preach the word.

May the Lord be with your spirit.

Paul is praying at the very end that God Almighty will take that mantle, that anointing, like Elijah to Elisha, and empower his disciple, his protege, Timothy, with a spirit of fearlessness that serves the living God.

And it's not just for Timothy, it's for anyone who reads this letter.

That benediction there, grace be with you.

You can't tell in English, but that word you is plural.

Grace be with you all in the church who read this letter.

May the Lord strengthen all of your spirits.

This is a charge, not just for Timothy, but for the whole church who will hear this letter, to be strengthened in their spirit, to be able to pass on the faith to the next generation.

This is our sixth principle.

You finish well by passing the faith forward.

Can we say that together?

You finish a faithful finish includes a faithful transmission.

You need a succession plan at the end of his life.

Paul's concerned with what matters most, and it's not his comfort, and it's not applause or wealth or anything.

He's saying, My main concern is that this movement continues.

So, church, as we finish this series by grace, let us not merely begin well, let us finish well individually and corporately.

And so we've come to the end of the letter.

He's in this dungeon.

Paul finishes this letter, sends it off just before he dies, and not long after he sent this letter, one morning, they killed him.

They took him to be executed, and that would be the last day of Paul on this planet.

I wonder what was going through his mind on that day.

Was he thinking, was it worth it?

I mean, here I am.

They're gonna kill me.

Are they gonna do this to all of us?

Was I crazy to think this thing would work?

Was I crazy to think we could survive the Roman Empire?

Were we crazy to think we could make a difference?

Were we crazy to think that this movement had any staying power?

Perhaps there he sat in that dark tank dungeon wondering what would happen after he's gone.

Now, I want you to do a little creative exercise for me for one second.

I want you to put on your thinking cap and your imagination, and I want you to get into a DeLorean and get that thing up to 88 miles an hour and go back with me to 63 AD, where you can visit Paul in this dungeon right before they execute him, and your job is to encourage him.

What would you say?

Maybe you say, Paul, Paul, before you go, do not be discouraged.

I I know what's gonna happen.

I'm from the future.

Paul, I've seen it with my own eyes, Paul.

I know this is hard for you to imagine, but one day in this city, this Roman city, everywhere that I can see, you'll see crosses.

Crosses everywhere in Rome.

It's gonna take over this whole city, Paul.

One day, Paul, no one will ever again say, Caesar is Lord.

But Paul, what's gonna happen is there's gonna be churches all over the world filled with people who proudly proclaim, Jesus is Lord.

Could Paul even imagine such a thing?

Paul, look over there.

Do you see Nero's circus right over there?

See that, Paul?

I want you to look over there.

You know where they persecute the Christians, where they throw them before the wild animals, and where the Christians are getting torn apart, right over there where Nero's circus is, Paul, they're gonna tear that thing down and they're gonna build a building.

It's gonna be one of the most beautiful buildings in the whole world, dedicated to your friend Peter.

Paul, look around this city.

One day, millions of people will come to this city from all over the world, tourists.

And they will say, they will not say, please take me to see where Julius Caesar is buried.

And they will not say, take me to see where Nero is buried.

You know what they're gonna say?

Take me to where the apostle Paul was in prison.

This is gonna happen, Paul.

And you know all those letters you wrote, 2 Timothy, as well as all the other stuff, all that stuff, we translated it into thousands of languages, and people all over the world read your letters and get encouraged by your letters for centuries and centuries and centuries reading the words that you wrote because you were not ashamed of the gospel, the very power of God for salvation.

Paul, one day there will come a time where fathers and mothers they will name their sons Paul and Peter, and they will name their dogs Nero and Caesar.

Could Paul have even imagined such a world?

I don't know, but neither do you know how God's gonna use you when you go.

So you stay faithful and you finish well.

I want you to look at the screen there.

Maybe you take a picture with your phone, and maybe you take a three by five card this week and you just write those out and you put that on your mirror or you put that on the visor of your car, just to remind you of these six principles in this chapter that help us learn how to finish well.

Because this is how we do it.

You finish well by seeing your life as an offering.

You finish well by remaining faithful through your entire race.

You finish well by living for eternal rewards, not present comfort.

You finish well by continuing ministry all the way to the end, you finish well by trusting Christ when people fail you, and you finish well by passing the faith forward.

I say this all the time.

But can you imagine a church full of men and women who are committed to these principles?

Can you imagine a church full of teens and kids who are totally committed to finishing in this way?

Let's be that church.

I want to invite the worship team to come and lead us in one more song.

And as they come, I want to close with a prayer.

It's a prayer that has meant a whole lot to me.

It's a prayer that's to be read at the end of your life.

It's a prayer that's written by a Puritan named Richard Baxter.

And it is his dying prayer.

And one day when I'm dying, I would like somebody to read this prayer at my bedside.

One day as I finish, I would like to be reminded of these words, because this prayer shows you how a Christian dies.

And so here is Richard Baxter's dying prayer.

Listen to these words.

Lord, it belongs not to my care.

Whether I die or live, to love and serve thee is my share, and this thy grace must give.

If life be long, I will be glad that I may long obey.

If short, yet why should I be sad to welcome endless day?

Christ leads me through no darker rooms than he went through before.

He that unto God's kingdom comes must enter by this door.

Come, Lord, when grace hath made me meet thy blessed face to see.

For if thy work on earth be sweet, what will thy glory be?

Then I shall end my sad complaints and weary sinful days and join with the triumphant saints that sing my Savior's praise.

My knowledge of that life is small.

The eye of faith is dim.

But 'tis enough that Christ knows all, that I shall be with him.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Would you stand as we pray together?

Father, thank you for your holy word, for this powerful testimony of Paul and his faithful endurance.

We confess that apart from your grace, we can't do this.

We're prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love.

We're prone to be honest, Lord.

I'm prone to love this present world.

But thank you that you are able to keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless before your presence with great joy.

We trust you.

So strengthen us, Lord, to be faithful and help us here as a church to be faithful, to guard this gospel and entrust it to the next generation for the next 175 years.

When trials come, would you stand by us?

When others fail us, would you remind us you never fail us?

And when our race grows difficult, we want you to sustain us by your grace.

And may we, by your power, be found faithful on that final day.

Keep us until your heavenly kingdom, we pray.

Through Jesus Christ our Savior.

And everyone said, Amen.

Let's sing together.