A Community of Christians

We'll start in verse 9.

Last week, as Paul was closing, he was giving Timothy some encouragement to not give up,

to fulfill his race, to fulfill his ministry, to run the race, to finish the race, to fight

the good fight, and to keep the faith.

It was a word of encouragement as Paul is ending this final letter here to Timothy.

And here in this last section, he just kind of covers the last few things that he wants

Timothy to be aware of, give him some instructions on maybe some things that need to be done,

and some messages for other brothers and sisters in Christ.

And so that's what we see here at the close of the book.

So let's pray and we'll get started.

God, we come to you.

We thank you for your word.

I pray that your Holy Spirit would speak to us tonight.

I pray that you would help us, dear Lord, to see this community that Paul references

in these verses tonight.

Some were with him, dear Lord, and some abandoned him, God, but I pray that we would learn from

Paul and his ministry that we would seek to be a community of brothers and sisters that

we can depend on one another, dear Lord, as we serve alongside each other.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Second Timothy chapter 4 verse 9, make every effort to come to me soon, for Demas has deserted

2 Timothy 4:9

me because he loved this present world and has gone to Thessalonica.

Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

Now here we see in this closing remarks that Paul is writing to Timothy here.

One, he says, I want you to come to me soon.

And that's understandable.

If we're ever in a bad situation, a scary situation, a tough situation, it feels good

to have somebody you love nearby.

It feels good to have family nearby.

It feels good to have friends nearby.

It's a good feeling in a time of trouble or just in general when you get to see those

that you love.

Now you can imagine Paul here.

He's going from place to place.

He's made a lot of friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, but Paul has suffered greatly.

He's been in prison and it has been a really tough go for Paul.

And so you can understand his desire to want to see Timothy soon.

After all, it appears as though Paul may realize that his days are getting short.

And maybe that's part of the reason why he tells Timothy to come soon is that he knows

he may not have many opportunities to see him again.

And perhaps he wanted to see him one last time.

But he wants Timothy to come, one, because he wants to see Timothy, but two, because

he said Demas has deserted him.

Now we don't know much about Demas.

We see Demas mentioned three times in the New Testament.

Two times Paul mentions him favorably as one who seems to be serving alongside Paul in

the ministry.

But here, what does Paul say of Demas?

He said that he has deserted him, that he has gone after the ways of the world.

That at one point in time, he was serving alongside Paul and doing well.

But at this point in time, he has deserted Paul.

Now I don't know about Demas.

Maybe he got his life back on track.

Maybe he and Paul worked things out.

I don't know.

But in this instance, we see that one who had walked closely with Paul in serving the

Lord appears to have stumbled and began to live for the world.

And Paul, of course, was upset about that taking place.

He goes on to mention some others here.

And then he goes on in verse 11 to say, only Luke is with me.

Bring Mark with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry.

Now it's interesting that he would mention Mark here, or John Mark, as we sometimes see

him referred to in the scriptures.

Now you may remember, if you have read through Acts, or maybe even if you come to Sunday

School more recently, we talked about this in Acts 15, that there was a little bit of

a disagreement, that there was some butting of heads between Paul and Mark.

In that instance, Paul was not happy with Mark because he had deserted him on one occasion.

Now this is exactly what we just saw of Demas here, which is one reason why it gives me

hope to think, well, maybe Demas is not someone like Mark.

Maybe he deserted Paul in this instance, but maybe like Mark, there's going to be a reunion

in the future.

And so in Acts chapter 15, Paul did not want Mark to accompany him on some of his missionary

Acts 15 · chapter mention

journeys because Mark had deserted him in the past.

And so they ended up splitting ways in Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

But here, by the time we get to the end of Paul's life in 2 Timothy chapter 4, we see

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

this passage doesn't tell us much other than he says, look, bring Mark.

And so obviously whatever differences they had had, they had worked out.

It doesn't mean that maybe one wasn't in the wrong or the other wasn't in the wrong.

It doesn't mean that one wasn't really a Christian.

It doesn't mean any of that.

It just means that there were two men of God and they butted heads.

And sometimes that happens even among Christians, even among men of God or women of God.

Sometimes we don't always see eye to eye.

Sometimes we kind of butt heads a little bit, but it's important that there is a restoration

that takes place in those relationships.

Yeah, they parted for a time, certainly.

But here we see that it doesn't appear as though Paul holds any grudges.

He recognizes that Mark is serving the Lord and can be of some benefit to serving the

Lord.

So this is a positive ending that we see in the story of Paul and Mark because when we

last saw them in Acts chapter 15, they went their separate ways.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

But it appears as though things have worked out for them.

Verse 12, I have sent Tichicus to Ephesus.

When you come, bring the cloak I left in Troas with carpets as well as the scrolls, especially

the parchments.

Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me.

The Lord will repay him according to his works.

Watch out for him yourself because he strongly opposed our words.

Now here we see a little bit of warning.

Now Paul had told Timothy, you know, hey, do the work.

You know you're going to face those.

You're going to encounter some.

He told him about that are going to try to stand in your way and stop you from doing

the work of the kingdom.

And here he mentions one specifically, Alexander.

Now whatever harm Alexander did to him, it was obviously pretty serious.

Maybe it was just in opposing the word.

Maybe there was physical harm.

I'm not sure.

But Alexander had been enough trouble to Paul and it caused Paul enough harm that he gives

Timothy a word of warning.

Hey, you better look out for this guy.

You better be careful because he greatly opposes the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So you better be careful if you encounter Alexander.

Verse 16, at my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me.

May it not be counted against them.

Now isn't that interesting?

You know, Paul obviously had a lot of people that had stood beside him and that had seen

that he was in love with the Lord and the work that he was doing and his dedication

and service to the Lord.

But isn't it interesting that when the going get tough, that people begin to desert you?

This is not so unlike when Jesus was arrested and he was taken in for his trial.

And what did the disciples do?

They all split.

Here they were all going to stand by Jesus and wasn't going to desert him, especially

Paul, excuse me, Peter.

And what happened?

As soon as Jesus was in trouble, they deserted him.

And sometimes that happens.

And listen to what Paul says here though.

He says, may it not be counted against them.

Isn't that beautiful?

That Paul could have said, look, all these people deserted me.

I'm done with them.

Let them be on their own.

They're good for nothing.

But that's not his attitude here.

May it not be counted against them.

Similar to what Jesus said on the cross, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

And so Paul here obviously has done a lot of work.

He's met a lot of people and he talks about a lot of these people and in this passage

and in other passages, but isn't it interesting that so many deserted Paul in the time that

they needed him the most.

That's important for us to remember.

We don't want to be those who desert people.

Perhaps we have been.

Perhaps there have been times in our life where there were people who really needed

us and we weren't there for them.

And it might just be because we were too afraid.

Sometimes that's the case.

Sometimes people need us, but we're kind of afraid to be there for them because we're

not sure what to say and we're not sure what to do.

And so we just kind of, we just kind of stay out of the situation, but maybe it's not about

what we say or what we do.

Maybe sometimes it's just about being there beside somebody so that they know that they're

not alone, so that they know that they are not deserted.

And so don't ever, don't ever be afraid to go, go check on somebody or go love on somebody

because you're not sure what to say.

He said, I don't, I don't know.

And sometimes we just, we kind of desert those that we need to be standing by and here and

in Paul's case, now perhaps they were, they were concerned about their own safety.

That seems like a real possibility.

If Paul is, you know, going to be beaten during prison, you know, maybe the people that were,

that were close to him were a little bit selfish.

And they said, I better look out for myself here.

But there are times that we need to stand up for people and there are times that we

need to stand beside people.

And so we want to, we want to try to do that.

And there are times that we probably have failed at that, but we want to try to do that.

And we don't want to hold it against people when they fail us because there are times

that we probably wish people were beside us and there for us.

And we felt alone and it'd be easy for us to get mad at everybody and get mad at the

world and, and get depressed and say, nobody cares about me.

But, but Paul, Paul understood the situation.

He knew what was going on and he probably knew the people and maybe they were not so

unlike the disciples.

Now the disciples, they love Jesus.

They certainly were doing the work of Jesus even after Jesus was crucified.

But in that moment, even though they love Jesus and had walked with him in that moment

that he got arrested and the time that was probably the scariest time that he ever went

through, they all deserted him.

And so Paul understood that.

And maybe these people who deserted Paul were, were good, good brothers and sisters in Christ

that had a moment of failure or maybe they should have stepped up and they didn't.

But nonetheless, Paul says, I'm not going to hold it against them that they abandoned

me.

Paul says, even when everybody else abandons me, God is still with me.

And that is important for us to remember because there are times that we do feel alone.

There are times even when there are other people around that we still feel alone, that

we feel, still feel like nobody gets what we're going through.

Nobody understands.

Nobody can relate.

Nobody can help me.

But God is always there with us.

He will not abandon us and he will give us the strength.

And there are days that it probably feels like we cannot go on, like we are not strong

enough and on those days we have to seek God all the more.

On those days our prayer life has to be really strong because there are days that we want

to give up, but we cannot give up.

And it's beautiful to see Paul who had suffered in such great ways and he did not give up.

He was continuing to run the race until he fulfilled his ministry and he knew that God

was with him every step of the way.

Verse 18, the Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his

heavenly kingdom.

To him be the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Isn't that beautiful that the Lord will rescue Paul?

The Lord will rescue you and I.

So whatever we go through in this world, it is not going to be eternal.

It's only going to be momentary.

In the moment it feels like eternity.

In the moment when we go through a year or two years or three years of struggle, it seems

like an eternity.

But when we get through it, it's amazing how quickly once we get through those things that

things kind of get better.

But in the moment it's really hard to get through those things.

But we have to remember we're only here for a brief time.

We're only here for 70, 80, 90 years if we're lucky.

And so this time is going to pass by quick and then God's going to rescue us from whatever

it is we go through in this world.

So we have to keep fighting the good fight like Paul did.

Verse 19, greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus.

Erastus has remained at Corinth.

I left Trophimus sick at Miletus.

Make every effort to come before winter.

Ubulus greets you, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers.

The Lord be with your spirit.

Grace be with you.

Now he says here to make every effort to come before winter.

You may remember earlier he said, hey, go get my cloak.

He might have just wanted him to come before winter for a very practical reason.

He might have been cold and he had already told him to bring his cloak.

And so he closes here with these last words of encouragement and words of encouragement

to his other brothers and sisters in Christ.

And he gives a list of people to greet here.

And so what we see a lot in Paul's writings, especially here at the end of this writing

and some others, is we see these long list of lots of names of people, some names that

we recognize, some that we see in other parts of scripture, and we know a little bit about

them.

Some are just mentioned briefly and we don't know anything about them other than they were

obviously brothers or sisters in Christ that Paul cared about and probably had served alongside

or helped him in some way.

And I think that's a beautiful thing that we see here at the end of this passage is community,

is Christian community, are brothers and sisters in Christ that care about each other.

They are spread far and wide.

They are at a bunch of different places he lists here, but they're all concerned about

one another.

They're all helping one another.

They were all praying for one another.

They were all supporting one another.

And Paul recognizes the importance of community.

And we see the love that Paul had for these people.

And no doubt these people that Paul mentioned are people that had love for Paul in return.

And if we get nothing else from this passage and closing, I think that's a beautiful thing

for us to take from it.

And we need to realize that there are a lot of people in our community and we want to

be those who stand beside them.

We want to be those who love them and who are there beside them and that they know that

we love them and that they know that God loves them.

And we need to be there to support one another and to pray for one another because life is

hard.

It's hard.

You guys know it's hard.

Everybody knows it's hard because you're just going through the stresses of trying to make

it through life and to pay the bills and sickness piles up and people you love are sick and

just things fall apart.

Our world seems like sometimes that it's going to fall apart.

You got all this election stuff and it's just, it's a lot that kind of pushes down on us.

And then even today we had one death within our church family.

We have another that's probably going to be soon to follow.

And so it's just hard.

It's hard.

You feel that heartache.

And I think for a community that you feel that heartache together, that when one person

in the community hurts, there's a hurt amongst all of those who are close to it.

And that's the way it should be for a body of Christ.

But we want to make sure that we're reaching out for those in our community that have a

need.

Those who are not able to take care of themselves, those who are hurting in a time of loss.

We need to make an effort, maybe even some extra effort to call them, to check on them,

to take them food, just to let them know that we love them, to pray for them, to just give

them a hug, to send them a card, whatever it may be.

We want to take those efforts as a body of Christ that we can grow in the Lord and that

we can grow stronger together.

And we do that by being there for one another in our time of need.

And a beautiful example of community here at the end of Paul's letter.

And may that be true for us, that we would have brothers and sisters in Christ and this

church and in this community that we can depend on, that we can trust, that we can call friend,

that we can know will be there for us in our time of trouble, that we can celebrate the

glory of God together, just as Paul did with this group that he talks about.

Let's pray.

God, we come to you, I pray God that you just would be with our church, be with our community,

dear Lord, there is just, it's always so much going on for everybody, dear Lord.

It's just life and life is just tough.

And maybe there's a break tonight for one person, but dear Lord, there's somebody else

that's right in the thick of just the stresses and the worries of life.

And I just lift this whole church body up to you, dear Lord.

I pray that you'd protect our folks.

I pray for the ones who are sick.

I pray for the ones who have lost loved ones, dear Lord.

You know what everybody's need is, dear Lord, and you know we need you, dear Lord, because

we are just, we're so helpless on our own, God.

Life happens and we just have to trust you to give us the strength to make it through

and to know what choices to make and to keep us encouraged, dear Lord, because there are

days that it just be easier to give up, dear Lord, but I pray that you help us not to give

up, but that we would get up, that we would trust you, and that we would see you work

in a mighty way, that you'd work in our lives individually, dear Lord, that you'd work in

our community, that you would help us to be a body of Christ that loves one another, that

takes care of one another, that looks after one another, dear Lord, that we just keep

one another on the right track, that we would be encouraged and strengthened through you.

Amen.